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M EMOI 11 S 



REMINIS CENCES 



OK THE LATE 



PROF. GEORGE BUSH 



BEING, FOR THE MOST PART, 



VOLUNTARY CONTRIBUTIONS FROM DIFFERENT FRIENDS, 



WHO HAVE KINDLY CONSENTED TO THIS 



MEMORIAL OF HIS WORTH. 



EDITED AND ARRANGED BY 

WOODBURY M. FERNALD. 



" We hold that it is never too early to give utterance to reformatory ideas. Though 
not at once acter/ upon, they are still acting as a secret leaven in the minds of men, and 
in due time will bring forth their proper fruits."— George Bush. 



BOSTON:^ 

PUBLISHED BY OTIS CLAPP, 

NO. 3 BEACON STREET. 

18 6 0. 

3^ ^h 



nA-°l 



^ r 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, 

By MARY W. BUSH, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



STEREOTITED BT COWLES & COMPAM , 

17 Washington St., Boston. 



O 

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% 



V3 



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THE FRIENDS OP THE LATE 
PROF. GEORGE BUSH; 

AND TO THE INTERESTS OF LEARNING, VIRTUE, AND RELIGION 
IN THE NEW CHURCH, 

AND FREEDOM EVERYWHERE, 

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED 
BY HIS SURVIVING WIDOW. 



PREFACE 



The following work does not pretend to the charac- 
ter of a full Biography, and the editor is therefore 
relieved in respect to any feelings of disappointment 
which may exist from such an expectation. The 
book is simply what it professes to be, — Memoirs and 
Reminiscences of our departed friend. And though, 
from the nature of it, it will not enter into all that 
minutia and continuity of life and character which 
properly belong to a Biography, and will fail, there- 
fore, of some advantages which such a work would 
afford, yet it will secure at the same time other advan- 
tages, peculiar only to a work of this kind. The editor 
could not offer his services as a Biographer, not having 
the necessary materials, and all that familiar knowl- 
edge pertaining to the life, character, history, and entire 
course of the subject of it, which such a work would 
necessarily require. And he has therefore tendered his 
services only as an humble editor of these Reminis- 
cences, contributing what he could, from his own re- 
sources, to the perfection and value of the work. 

The advantages gained in a work of this kind are 
peculiar. The several contributions have each a spe- 
cific value of their own. They are the voluntary offer- 
ings of so many friends, each with their varied knowl- 
edge and acquaintance, intimacies and affections, to 



Vi PREFACE. 

the memory and worth of the departed. It is hoped, 
therefore, that what is lost from the character of an 
ordinary Biography, will be more than made up by the 
fulness of the work as it is, and the various responses 
of according friends. How interesting it is, to behold 
the tribute of so many hands, male and female, each 
with the heart warmly in it, thus endeavoring to twine 
a wreath, not for the show of honor or of victory — for 
he needs nothing of this — but of simple affection, for 
the memory of the loved and valued ! 

Here let a special remark be made. Nothing could 
be more averse to the wishes of our learned and hon- 
ored friend, than any kind or manner of laudation 
whatever. It was his positive request, made to his 
wife a short time before he died, not to publish any thing 
for the vain purpose of lauding him. Yet by sugges- 
tion made to him that something might be wanted, he 
did consent, in case of a possible source of aid to his 
widow and fatherless children, that some simple me- 
moir might be published. We hope the friendly reader 
will remember this. He went so far as to enjoin it upon 
his sister, of Millville, N. Y., not to furnish a single 
scrap for a memoir of such an unworthy being as 
himself. 

We have had this thought in view through all our 
writing of him. At times we have been oppressed by 
it. We have almost felt his admonitory finger cau- 
tioning us. We hope we have not exceeded the 
bounds of truth and propriety ; but in the midst of so 
rich a harvest, how could we refrain from gleaning 
richly, or how could we fall short of just honor to our 
friend ? 

To all the kindly contributors of these Reminis- 



PREFACE. Vll 

cenccs, we are authorized to say that they are largely 
remembered, and the grateful thanks of the widow are 
extended by her request. 

It is needless to say, perhaps, that we do not deem 
our work so perfect as it might be, nor is it, by far, 
what we gladly would have seen as a still more suit- 
able Biography and Memorial of Professor Bush. But 
we have made the most of the materials put into our 
hands; we have done what we could ; and without any 
affectation, we may express our own humble satisfac- 
tion that so much is here given, so truly interesting 
and valuable. We doubt if any Biography, from any 
one hand, could have been so much so. We trust 
that many readers, both in and out of the New Church, 
will unite with us in the feeling. It is an offering, not 
to a sect, but to the world. And there is much in it of 
a theological, philosophical, psychological and miscel- 
laneous character, which will make it of universal in- 
terest. 

And, for certain imperfections which may appear in 
the work, or want of classical taste in every article, or 
absolute accuracy, or deference to a fastidious nicety 
of party feeling, let not the critical eye be too unspar- 
ing. We have not sought to cut out every thing that 
might offend a severe and cultivated taste ; yet we have 
sought to be faithful to the subject of our Memoirs, 
and above all party influence. And we have rather 
deferred to a charitable sympathy, in some instances, 
what a stern critical judgment might have utterly re- 
fused, even from some more practised writers. Let it 
be considered in these respects, as in every other, an 
offering of love from many true hearts and hands, and 
I have no doubt that even the Professor himself would 



gladly accept it — even more gladly than a more uni- 
formly classical, but less hearty and popular production. 

We had designed, at first, to have appended to this 
volume, several selections from the unpublished manu- 
scripts of the Professor : — Sermons and Lectures. 
But the work as it is has swelled to such an unex- 
pected size, as to forbid the carrying out of our original 
intentions. At some future day, there may be pre- 
sented a distinct volume of them to the public. The 
treasures are rich, and we have no doubt a volume or 
more will be called for. 

One slight disadvantage of the promiscuous tribute 
here given may be mentioned ; and that is, an unavoid- 
able repetition, to some extent, in the recounting of 
works, publications, traits of character, etc. The dif- 
ferent memorialists would necessarily run upon some 
similar enumerations of this kind ; but with this apology 
and explanation, the whole work is now committed to 
a sympathizing and appreciative public. 

W. M. F. 

Boston, Mass., Sept., 1860. 



CONTENTS 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH BY THE EDITOR. 

Birth and Ancestry of Prof. George Bash. — Early Death of his Mother, 
and its Effect upon him. — Early Religious Impressions. — Character 
of his Boyhood. — Experience in the Printing-Office. — Going to Bos- 
ton for an Education. — Academy and College Experience. — Literary 
Character at that Time. — Commencement of his Clerical and Profes- 
sional Life. — Notices of his Published Works. — Notice of the Pro- 
fessor from Griswold's Prose Writers of America. — Connection with 
the New Jerusalem Church. — Preaching in New York and Brooklyn. 

— Character as a Preacher and Lecturer. — Editor's Personal Ac- 
quaintance with him. — Effect of his Writings. — Work on Mesmer 
and Swedenborg. — Exciting Controversial Interest in New York. — 
New Church Repository and Monthly Review. — Editor's Encounter 
with the Professor. — Friendly Intercourse. — Rank and Standing of the 
Professor in the New Church. — His Dignity and Bearing Compared with 
other Celebrities. — His Sacrifices for the Truth. — His Positive Char- 
acter. — His Prayerful Character. — Interesting Incident concerning 
this Trait. — His last Public Work. — Removal to Rochester. — Pros- 
pects there. — Pull Particulars of his last Sickness and Death. 1 : — 38 

EXTRACTS FROM AN OLD JOURNAL OF THE PROFESSOR. 

Reflections on the Use of a Journal. — One deep Impression of Danger 
in the Spiritual Life. — Severe Trials, and Sense of Inefficiency. — 
Great Disquietude and Fear. — Peace Restored. — Communion Sab- 
bath. — Carnal Thirst for all kinds of Knowledge. — Relish for Divine 
Things. — Acceptance of the Office of Tutor of New Jersey College. — 
Reflections on a poor Sermon. — Thoughts of an entire Revolution in 
Literary Habits. — Deep, awful Evidence of Depravity. — At a great 
Loss in what Light to view himself. — Reflections on "his Birthday. — 
Fasting and Prayer. — Spiritual Sloth. — Whole days of Fasting and 
Prayer. — Marks and Proofs of Divine Love to his Soul. — Drift of 
his Petitions. — Solemn Scene of the Death of an Impenitent Sinner. — 
Great Offence to a Universalist Woman. — Funeral Discourse, and Re- 
flections on a Peculiar Vanity. — Commencement of Housekeeping. 

— Visit to Plymouth, Mass 39—54 



X CONTENTS. 

A REVIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL POSITIONS, 

CLERICAL AND THEOLOGICAL, WITH SOME REMARKS UPON THE PER- 
SONAL CHARACTER OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH, AFTER HE BECAME A 
NEW CHURCHMAN I BY ASA WORTHINGTON, A VERY INTIMATE FRIEND, 
AND FOR SEVERAL YEARS A MEMBER OF HIS CHURCH IN BROOK- 
LYN, N. Y. 

Reasons for Non-Appreciation of Prof. Bush. — Startling Character of 
the Truths embraced by him. — Peculiarity of his Mind. — Steady and 
unwavering Faith in the New Church Doctrines. — Opposition to the 
New Church Convention. — His Views of the Priestly Office. — Pre- 
vailing Misapprehension of the Term " Church." — Mosheim's Testi- 
mony to the Condition of the Churches at the Commencement of the 
Second Century. — Gradual Departure from the Primitive Simplicity, 
and the Development of Synodicul or Sectarian Christianity. — Sur- 
prising Effects of this Change in the Ecclesiastical Polity of the 
Churches. — The true Spiritual Pedigree of the Pope. — The Visibility 
of the Church. — The Origin of the Priesthood, and the Denial of all 
Distinction between the Clergy and Laity as separate Classes or Grades. 

— Supposed Advantages of the Present System. — Explication of 
Scriptural Terms relative to " Ministry." — The Office of " Deacon." — 
Imposition of Hands. — Administering the Sacraments. — Preaching 
the Gospel. — Ordination. — Perversion of this Subject by Clergymen. 

— True Office of " Ministry," rightly understood. — Tendency of Cler- 
ical Rule. — Evil Effects of the Distinction between Clergy and Laity. 

— Supposed Evils of the Abrogation of this Distinction. — No sudden 
Changes. — Great Revolution in the Conduct of Spiritual Affairs, 
Church Architecture, Public Worship, etc. — Pregnant Commentary 
of the Divine Providence upon the Truth of these Main Positions. — A 
Priestly Principle ever to be in the Church, but not to ultimate itself in 
a separate Priestly Caste under the Christian Dispensation. — How, 
then, is the Gospel to be proclaimed ? 

OPPOSITION TO THE ABOVE VIEWS BY REV. B. F. BARRETT. 

The Clerical Profession, as all other Professions, the normal Product of 
the Constitution of the Human Soul : fully illustrated. — The Profes- 
sor's Reply. — Spiritual Priests and Kings not necessarily ultimative 
of Natural Ones. — The Visible and Invisible Church: one Human, 
the other Divine. — Non-existence of a Clergy in the primitive Chris- 
tian Church. — Contrary Conclusions from this Fact by Bush and Bar- 
rett. — Testimony of Swedenborg concerning the Nature of the Church 
in its Infancy. — Process of Human Development analogous to the 
Church's Growth in True Order. — Historical Testimony to the Value 
of Ecclesiastical Institutions. — Alleged Absence of any Proof in the 
Inspired Word of a Ministerial or Clerical Class. — Arguments pro 
and con from Swedenborg's Averments of Preachings, Temples, and 
Divine Worship in Heaven. — Testimony of Swedenborg concerning 
the Apostolic Office. 

Mesmerism and Spiritualism. — Reasons for Change of Theological 
Views. — First Questioning of the Common Doctrine of the Resume* 



CONTENTS. xi 

tion. — Heaven and Hell. — Spiritual Entities. — Scenery of the other 
World. — Obstacles to Faith in the New Church Doctrines gradually 
removed. — Philosophy of all the grand Principles of the Physical 
Universe laid open hy Swcdcnborg. — Creation of Matter from God. — 
Doctrine of the Trinity, fully illustrated. — Atonement. — Hereditary 
Evil. — Salvation in the Sinner, not out of him, by Imparted Right- 
eousness. — Redemption. — Influence of the Holy Spirit. — The State 
after Death. — Conditions on which the Claims of Swedenborg can be 
substantiated. — Nature of the Soul or Spirit. — Rationality of Swe- 
denborg's Disclosures of the other Life. — Internal Sense of the Word. 

— Second Advent of Christ. — Swedcnborg's Character. — Objections 
to these Claims for the New Church. — The sacred Canon of Scrip- 
ture. — Gradations of Inspiration with the Scriptural Writers. — 
Threefold Sense of the Scriptures. — Practical Bearings of the New 
Church Doctrines. — Character of Prof. Bush. . . 55—184 

REMINISCENCES, ETC., BY REV. WM. B. HAYDEN. 

Prof. Bush in New York, 1835. — Literary and Personal Character. — 
His Study in Nassau Street. — His Visits to the Bookstores. — His Es- 
timation by other Authors and Literary Men. — Mental Characteristics. 

— Four Years' Transition Period. — Effect of the new Doctrines upon 
his Mind. — Great Sacrifices of social Connection and Sympathy. — 
Pecuniary Sacrifices. — Higher States of Charity and Love. 185 — 196 

RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS, BY N. F. CABELL, 
ESQ. 

Ardent Love of Truth, and Openness in its Avowal. — Old and New 
School Theology. — First Acquaintance with Prof. Bush as an Author. 

— Introduction to the New Church. — Bush on the Resurrection. — 
Effect of the Accession of Prof. Bush to the New Church on its Oppo- 
nents. — Reply to Dr. Pond. — Remarkable Resemblance of Prof. 
Bush to Win. Maxwell, Esq. — High Hopes of the Professor. — His 
Preaching. — Supposed Errors of the Professor concerning Mesmerism, 
Slavery, and the Priesthood. — Necessity for Free Inquiry. — Eminent 
Position of George Bash 197—220 

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS OF PROF. BUSH TO N. F. 
CABELL, ESQ 221—231 

LETTER FROM REV. HENRY W. BELLOWS, NEW YORK. 

Friendship between Dr. Bellows and Prof. Bush. — Impressions of Char- 
acter, etc. — Love for the Professor. — Mystery of his Belief to Dr. 
Bellows 232—236 

LETTER FROM A CLERGYMAN OF THE "ORTHODOX" 
CHURCH. 

Expressions of Sympathy. —Inability to account for the Professor's Be- 
lief. — Guilelessness and Simplicity of Character. — Candor. — Con- 
jugal Ethics. — Biblical Attainmeuts. — Life Element from the Old 
Church, ,,.„...!, 237—243 



Xll CONTENTS. 

LETTER FROM A LAD? OF THE "ORTHODOX" CHURCH. 

Pleasant Memories. — Genial Sphere of the Professor. — His perpetual 
Freshness. — Humor. — Sincerity and Earnestness. — Deep Piety. — 
Peace and Triumph of his Last Days 244—250 

TRIBUTARY RECORD TO PROF. BUSH, BY REV. LYMAN 
WHITING. 

"Precincts of Greatness." — Atmosphere of Character. — The Professor's 
Study ! Graphic Description. — Conversation. — Elemental Faith "Un- 
changed." — Costume of Belief. — The Man " Superior to his System." 
— Free Debate. — Deep Sympathy. .... 251 — 255 

INTERESTING CORRESPONDENCE RELATING TO A VERY 
EARLY PERIOD OF PROFESSOR BUSH'S MINISTRY, 
WHILE IN THE PRESBYTERIAN ORDER. 

Call to Indianapolis. — Dissolution of the Pastoral Relation. — Secession 
from Presbyterianism. — Affecting Incidents connected with his Dis- 
missal from the Church. — Preaching in the Court-House. — Conver- 
sation with a Campbellite Preacher. — Tea-Table Incidents. 256—261 

SKETCH. 

Singular Encounter of the Professor with a Stranger, for a Sermon 
Preached. — Remarkable Dream connected therewith. — Apparent Ful- 
filment. — Personal Character. — Ministerial Appointment and Suc- 
cession. 262—266 

REMINISCENCES, BY A LADY. 

First Impressions of the Professor. — His Sphere and Presence in 
the Church.— .- Visit and Conversations at his House. — Interesting 
Sketch. 267—275 

LETTER FROM MRS. ELIZA DICK. . . . 276—278 

LETTER FROM MRS. ANNA CORA RITCHIE. . 279—281 

LETTERS OF PROF. BUSH TO MRS. RITCHIE. 282—287 

REMINISCENCE, BY A LADY. — Case of Magnetic Influ- 
ence, W1TU NOTE FROM SwEDENBOEG. . . . 2S8— 291 

COMMUNICATION FROM OTIS CLAPP, ESQ. 

First Acquaintance with Prof. Bush. — Lectures in Boston. — Mesmeric 
Controversy. — Letter from an eminent Clergyman in New York. — 



CONTENTS. Xlll 

Prof. Bush's Fairness in Controversy. — His Character as Tutor at 
Princeton College. — His Church at Brooklyn. — His Correspondence. 

— Loyalty to Conscience. — Christian Love to all the Good. — 
"Exposition of the Gospels." — Extracts from Letters of Prof. 
Bush 292—303 

TESTIMONY CONCERNING THE EARLY MINISTRY, ETC., 
OF PROF. BUSH. 

Calvinistic Preaching in Indianapolis. — Transient Interior Views. — 
Social and Personal Qualities. . . . . 304—306 

LETTER FROM MR. JOHN THOMAS. 

Lasting Influence of the Professor's Labors. — Views of his own Death. 

— Angelic Ministrations. ...... 307—309 

REMINISCENCES. 

Letter of Prof. Bush to Mr. Reynolds. — His Plans at Rochester. — His 
Character and Spirit 310—312 

LETTER FROM S. HUNT 313 

STATEMENT OF MRS. JANE GOUDY, Le Claire, Iowa. 314, 315 

LINES SUGGESTED BY THE DEATH OF PROF. BUSH, BY 
A. J. C. 316 

LETTERS MISCELLANEOUS TO PROF. BUSH. 

From Hon. Rufus Choate (nine letters). — Dr. Leonard Woods, Ando- 
ver, Mass. — Joseph Vaton, Scotland. — George B. Arnold, Alton. — 
Robert Elf, Charleston, S. C. — A New Churchman of the West. — 
Prof. Bush, in Reply. — James A. Austin, Richmond, Va. — A. W. 
Paine, Esq., Bangor/Me. — Rev. B. F. Barrett, Cincinnati. O. — W. 
H. Wynn, Hamilton, O. — <Otis Clapp, Esq., Boston, Mass. — Thomas 
Wayland, Warrenton, Geo. — Thomas Wayland, Marietta, Geo. — 
Rev. A. Haworth, Manchester, Eng. — Rev. A. E. Ford, Paris, 
France. — Thomas Shewell, Phcenixville, Pa. — V. Kierulff, West 
Indies. 317—364 

LETTERS MISCELLANEOUS FROM PROF. BUSH. 

To Dr. Leonard Woods, Andover, Mass. (four letters). — Robert Goudy, 
Indianapolis, Ind. (two letters). — Rev. Henry Weller, Laporte, Ind.— 
Abelard Reynolds, Rochester, N. Y. — Mr. Stevens. — Mrs. Eliza 
Dick 365—384 

HUMILITY : LINES BY PROF. BUSH, SUGGESTED BY A 
PERSIAN FABLE 385— 3S7 



XIV CONTENTS. 

EXTRACTS FROM AN ORATION ON THE LITERARY CHAR- 
ACTER OF THE AMERICAN CLERGY. Delivered by Prof. 
Bush at Dartmouth College in 1818 388—395 

ORATION ON READING 396—404. 

"GONE TO HIS REST." By A. W., Brooklyn, N. Y. . 405 



BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 



BY THE EDITOR. 

Prof. George Bush was born in Norwich, Vt., 
June 12th, 1796. His father, John Bush, was the 
oldest son of Timothy Bush, of the same town, who 
removed to that place from Connecticut, and had seven 
sons, who all lived to be over fifty years old. Two of 
them received a college education. John Bush, the 
father of the subject of these reminiscences, graduated 
at Dartmouth College, in 1789. He was a thorough 
scholar, excelling in the languages, particularly the 
Greek, studied for the law, but owing to ill health and 
adverse circumstances he never practically pursued it. 
He married Abigail Maroin, in 1785, by whom he had 
four children, — George, Henry, Fannie, and Abigail ; 
all now deceased, except the oldest daughter, now the 
wife of Rev. N. T. Yeomans, of Millville, N. Y. 

George was but four and a half years old when his 
mother died, and twenty-two when his father died. 
Being left so young without a mother, it made him 
very tender in his maternal sympathies ; he always felt 
the great want of a mother's care, and was very sensi- 
ble how much more might have been done for him, 
had she only been spared. When he saw a child 
hanging upon its mother's arms, and fondled and 
caressed by her, he would sometimes go away and cry 
as though his heart would break, and exclaim — " Oh, 
if the good God had, pnly left me my mother!" He; 
spoke frequently of her, as though her invisible pres- 
ence still haunted and watched over him. 

^either- of his' parents were professors of religion, 
1 



2 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

and he was not, therefore, brought up in the strictness 
of an early religious education. He was not, he has 
often been heard to say, taught to pray, but he went 
out visiting one day, when about six years old, and 
saw a little child pray at its mother's knees ; this 
affected him so much that he thought he should like to 
pray too, and he accordingly then began. But his 
views of theology were at that time of course very 
simple. He had always thought the Lord was good, 
and would take care of him, but he believed in the 
Devil also, and greatly feared him. So he used to 
have two prayers, one to the Lord and one to the 
Devil. He knew it was no use to flatter or cajole the 
Lord, but the Devil he thought might be somewhat 
appeased in this way ; and his prayers to this person- 
age, therefore, partook somewhat of the nature of 
compliment, and acknowledgment of his splendid 
abilities, by which he thought to gain his favor, and 
ward off some of his wiles ! 

He was of course a very good boy, and when under 
parental control, was very filial and conscientious. His 
eldest sister has no recollection of his ever receiving or 
deserving a reprimand for misbehavior. His ravishing 
love of books commenced with her earliest recollections 
of him. He had access to the College Library, and 
not unfrequently would be seen fetching home ponder- 
ous volumes as heavy as he could carry. She would 
sometimes say to him — " Why do you choose such 
kind of works when you are so young?" He would 
reply — " Oh ! I understand them all ; and if you live, 
Miss Fannie, you will one day see me as great a man 
as the authors of these books were." 

He went to school at Hanover, N. H., where his 
father moved when George was quite young. Pie 
was a very studious boy, retiring in Iris habits, and 
not given much to outside sports. When he and his 
brother used to visit at their grandfather's, with his 
young cousins, they could never prevail on him to join 
them in their out-of-door plays; " I have no recol- 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 6 

lection," says a cousin of his, Roswell Bush, " of his 
ever joining us in so much as one play ; his attention 
seemed to be entirely taken up with books. In bis 
youth he was considered by his acquaintances to be a 
very consistent, pious, humble young man." Wherever 
he went, a book went with him. lie was seen some- 
times going to mill on horseback, lying on his face, 
with a book open before him. He was never tempted 
to steal but once in all his life. And what could the 
article possibly be? Only a book! which he asked the 
loan of as an honest child, which was refused, and in 
the passion for which he then "borrowed it awfully 
without leave," devoured its contents, and returned it 
to the owner. He had a reputation, too, for valor 
and nobility towards the other boys. Some one in 
Hanover, who knew him as a schoolboy, said that his 
mates always felt sure of George Bush's protection, 
because he carried a Bible in his pocket. 

At the age of fourteen or fifteen, his father thought 
he was injuring his health by reading and studying, 
and that he had better give him a trade. He was 
accordingly put into a printing office, and actually 
undertook to become one of the craft. But the printer 
soon found he could do nothing with him, for he would 
become so interested in reading the manuscript, and 
absent-minded therein, that he could not sufficiently 
adhere to the types. Oh, he thought, u if I could only 
go into a corner and read the manuscript ! " He 
a-emained in the office only about three months, when 
the printer told his father it was no use, he w T as fit 
for nothing but a scholar. 

He then left the printing office, and determined on a 
Quixotic experiment of his own. He resolved io have 
an education somehow or other, and hearing that, he 
had a relative in Boston, by the name of House, who 
Was very wealthy, his object now was to find him. 
He thought if he should tie his clothes up in a bundle, 
he could walk to Boston ; and he started, and got as 
far as Concord, N. H., when his means became spent, 



4 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

and becoming conscience-smitten he returned to his 
father. His father asked him why he ran away — if 
he did not know he was liable to be taken up as a 
vagrant. Yes, he knew all that; "but what," said his 
father, " did you propose doing when you got there ? " 
He said he should find out where the man lived, and 
go and sit upon his door-step till he made his appear- 
ance, and then the man would ask what he was doing 
there : and he would answer in such a way as to make 
dm think that he knew something, and the man would 
probably take pity on him, and would ask him in, and 
keep him, and give him an education. 

As this plan failed, he was then put to the Academy 
in Hanover, and fitted for College. For about three 
years he taught school in St. Johnsbury, Vt., during 
the College vacations, to help pay his College expenses. 
He had also a district school some distance off, which he 
taught out of College hours, a*nd for which he used to 
walk fifteen or twenty miles a day, nearly the whole of 
his College term. He was also private tutor, a part of 
the time, at the house of Mrs. Rufus Choate's father, 
Esq. Olcutt, of Hanover. It was here that he and 
Mr. Choate formed an intimacy which ripened into 
the closest friendship, and continued for many years. 
They were in College together, but were not class- 
mates, one being a year in advance of the other. But 
they were mated in a more intimate manner ; they 
were " chums " in full fellowship. 

Our friend entered Dartmouth College in the eigh- 
teenth year of his age, " far advanced," says a biograph- 
ical article in Griswold's Prose Writers of America, 
" in classical learning, and distinguished for graces of 
style in literary composition at that time unusual even 
among the veterans of the pulpit and the press. 
Among his classmates at Dartmouth, were the late 
Dr. Marsh, of the University of Vt., so eminent as a 
scholar, a philosopher, and a Christian ; Prof. Thomas 
C. Upham, who has won an enviable reputation in his 
metaphysical writings, and other religious and spiritual 



OF PROF. GKOttCE DUSH. 5 

works concerning the hidden and interior life of the 
Christian; and Rufus Choate, [already mentioned] 
who at the bar and in the senate has been among the 
most conspicuous for learning, wisdom, and fervid 
eloquence. At this time the pursuits of Messrs. Bush 
and Choate, as well as their tastes, were congenial; 
but religious influences changed the intentions of Mr. 
Bush, and after graduating with the highest honors, in 
1818, he entered the Theological Seminary at Prince- 
ton, to prepare himself for the ministry. Jn due time 
he received ordination in the Presbyterian Church, and 
having passed a year as tutor in Princeton College, he 
in 1824 went to Indiana, under the auspices of the 
Home Missionary Society, and settled at Indianapolis. 
In the following year he was married to a daughter 
of the Hon. Lewis Condict, of Morristown, in New 
Jersey, by whom he had one son, who died at the age 
of twenty-nine years. He acquired considerable repu- 
tation as a preacher, professorships were offered him in 
several Colleges, and prospects for the satisfaction of 
all his ambition seemed opening before him ; but in 
1827, when he had been four years in Indiana, his wife 
died, and he returned to the East 

He had already written occasionally for the literary 
and theological journals, but now he determined to 
consecrate his life to letters and learning ; and in the 
various departments of dogmatical and ethical theol- 
ogy, general commentary, biblical antiquities, herme- 
neutics and criticism, the fruits of his industrious pen 
have ever since engaged the attention of scholars and 
thinking men. His election to the professorship of He- 
brew and Oriental Literature in the University of the 
city of New York, in 1831, may have had some influence 
on the direction of his studies, but the field upon which 
he entered, under any circumstances, would have been 
preferred by him, and is the one in which he was fitted 
to acquire the greatest influence and reputation." He 
was also at this time, chosen as Superintendent of the 
Press of the American Bible Society. 
1* 



6 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

The first work of Prof. Bush was his Life of Mo- 
hammed, published in 1832, being volume 10 of Har- 
per's Family Library. In this work, copious extracts 
from the " false prophet's " revelations are interwoven 
with his personal memoirs. This was followed in the 
next year by his celebrated Treatise on the Millennium, 
in which he assumed the position that the millennium, 
strictly so-called, is past. But by the millennium he 
does not here understand the golden age of the 
Church, which, in common with all good men, he re- 
gards as a future era. He contends that as the mem- 
orable period of the thousand years of the apocalypse 
is distinguished mainly by the binding of the sym- 
bolical dragon, we must determine by the legitimate 
canons of interpretation what is shadowed forth by this 
mystic personage, before we can assure ourselves of 
the true character of the millennial age. The dragon, 
he supposes, is the grand hieroglyphic of paganism ; 
the " binding of the dragon " but a figurative phrase 
for the suppression of paganism within the limits of 
the Roman empire, — a fulfilment which he contends 
commenced in the reign of Constantine, and was con- 
summated in that of Theodosius, his successor. He 
draws largely on the pages of Gibbon in support of 
his theory, assuming all along the great foundation 
principle that the apocalypse of John is but a series of 
pictured emblems shadowing forth the ecclesiastical 
and civil history of the world. Of course, his New 
Church faith, afterwards adopted, materially altered his 
principles of criticism, and gave him far higher and 
different views of the Scriptures. But as a merely 
literary performance, this work received the highest 
commendation of the critics, and though not generally 
assented to, it has never been disproved by them ! 

In 1834, he commenced the publication of a Com- 
mentary on the Book of Psalms, on a plan embracing 
the Hebrew text, with a new literal version. " The real 
object of a commentary," says a London reviewer, 
" which is not to supersede the text, but to excite 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 7 

attention to it, appears to be as nearly attained in 
this volume, as in any other work we could name. 
The author happily avoids that generalizing manner 
which detracts from the value of many celebrated 
works, by rendering them of little use in the way of 
quotation." This work was published in numbers of 
about eighty pages each. But owing to other engage- 
ments pressing upon him, only three or four numbers 
.ppeared. 

In 1835, he published his Hebrew Grammar, for the 
use of Schools, Seminaries, and Universities. A second 
edition appeared in 1838. It has been highly approved 
wherever used. It is said to be better adapted than 
any other to elementary instruction. 

In 1836, he published a large octavo volume of 
Scriptural Illustrations, laboriously compiled from 
forty-six British and foreign writers. It is a compila- 
tion from Oriental tourists, archaeologists and commen- 
tators, with a view to cast light upon the Sacred 
Scriptures in the departments of topography, manners, 
customs, arts, learning, usages of speech, etc. It is 
illustrated by many valuable and interesting engrav- 
ings, and should be in the hands of every biblical 
student. 

In 1840, he commenced the publication of his Com- 
mentaries on the Old Testament, of which eight vol- 
umes have been issued, embracing Genesis, Exodus, 
Leviticus, Joshua, Judges, and Numbers. These have 
been highly commended, both by foreign and Ameri- 
can reviewers. They were marked as well by their 
ingenuity and boldness, as by the learning of his 
speculations. Says a notice of them which appeared 
it the time in Graham's Magazine, — "His careful 
study, his scrupulous fidelity in eliciting the exact 
meaning of the original, and his peculiar tact in ex- 
plaining it have made his Notes everywhere popular, 
so that before the completion of the series, the first 
volume has reached the sixth edition, the second a 
lift li, etc. In all of them will be found discussions ou 



8 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

the most important points of biblical science, extend- 
ing far beyond the ordinary dimensions of expository 
notes, and amounting in fact to elaborate dissertations 
of great value. Among the subjects thus extensively 
treated are, in Genesis, the temptation and the fall, 
the dispersion from Babel, the prophecies of Noah, the 
character of Mclchisedec, the destruction of Sodom 
and Gomorrah, the history of Joseph, and the propheti- 
cal benedictions of Jacob; in Exodus, the hardening 
of Pharaoh's heart, the miracles of the magicians, 
the pillar of cloud as the scat of the Shekinah, the 
decalogue, the Hebrew theocracy, the tabernacle, the 
cherubim, the candlestick, the shew bread, the altar, 
etc.; in Leviticus, a clear and minute specification of 
the different sacrifices, the law of marriage, including 
the case of marriage with a deceased wife's sister, very 
largely considered, and a full account of the Jewish 
festivals. The sixth volume, including Joshua and 
Judges, contains an ample and erudite exposition of 
the Song of Deborah, and an extended discussion on 
the subject of Jephtha's vow, with a view to determine 
whether the Jewish warrior really sacrificed his daugh- 
ter. The Professor gives an array of very strong reasons 
in favor of the negative." 

In 1844, he published the Hierophant, a Monthly 
Magazine, in which he enters elaborately into the 
nature of the prophetic smybols, and in one of the 
numbers brings out some grand results as to the physi- 
cal destiny of the globe. He assumes, says the article 
in Griswold, " that a fair construction of the language 
of the prophets is far from countenancing the com- 
mon opinion respecting the literal conflagration of the 
heavens and the earth, and does not even teach that 
such a catastrophy is ever to take place. He denies 
not that this may possibly be the finale which awaits 
our planet and the solar system, but contends that if 
so, it is to be gathered rather from astronomy than 
revelation, from the apocalypse of Newton, Laplace, 
and Herschel, than from that of John. The Letters in 



OF PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 9 

the Hicrophant to Prof. Stuart, on the double sense of 
prophecy, have been regarded as among the finest 
specimens of critical discussion." 

In 1845, much attention was excited by a work of 
the Professor's, entitled " Anastasis, or the Doctrine of 
the Resurrection of the Body, Rationally and Spiritually 
considered ; " in which he opposed the doctrine of 
the physical construction of the body in another world, 
with arguments from reason and revelation. This 
book may be called almost his transition work from 
the " Old Church " to the « New." It met with much 
opposition from the pulpit and the press, and the 
author replied in a small work entitled " The Resurrec- 
tion of Christ, in answer to the question whether He 
arose in a Spiritual and Celestial, or in a Material 
and Earthly Body ; " and in another treatise on " The 
Soul," being an Inquiry into Scriptural Psychology. 

Several other small works, chiefly in pamphlet form, 
were published by the Professor before his entrance to 
the light of the New Jerusalem, the titles of which 
were as follows : — 

The Valley of Vision, from Ezekiel : or the Dry 
Bones of Israel Revived : an Attempted Proof of the 
Conversion and Restoration of the Jews : New York, 
1844. Nebuchadnezzar's Dream of the Great Im- 
age : 1844. Scripture Questions for Bible Classes for 
Adults. Deut. — Est: 1829. Questions and Notes, 
Critical and Practical, upon the Book of Genesis : de- 
signed for Help to Biblical Instruction : 1831. Ques- 
tions and Notes, Critical and Practical, upon Leviticus : 
1833. 

" Very few theological writings," says the article in 
Griswold, " have been more read in so short a period, 
either by the laity or the clergy ; and it is not to be 
denied that with the former, at least, his reasonings 
have been very generally convincing." 

' The inquiry after truth, which is the love-making 
or wooing of it ; the knowledge of truth, which is the 
presence of it; and the belief of truth, which is the 



10 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

enjoying of it, 5 Lord Bacon says, ' is the sovereign 
good of human nature.' There never was a more sin- 
cere lover of the truth than George Bush; few have 
sought it with more earnestness and humbleness ; and 
that he has discovered it he seems to have the evidence 
of a profouud satisfaction. He looks for the grandest 
moral, political, and intellectual movements that man 
has ever seen; indeed thinks they are now taking 
place ; that the race is swinging loose from its ancient, 
moorings, and is launching upon an unexplored sea, 
where are no charts for its guidance, where the azimuth 
must be often plied, and the plummet often thrown 
into the wide ocean, on which floats the vessel freight- 
ed with the weal of the world. But the age with 
all its vices bids him hope ; the wide reprehension of 
wrong, the deep seated feeling of right, the diffusion 
of learning and religion, the giving way of barbarous 
usages to order and law, the extension of man's domin- 
ion over the elements, by which space and time are 
removed from between nations, all give promise to him 
of the last and most glorious act in the drama of the 
earth, and while he labors he sings, Eureka ! 

" The extent and variety of his learning, his rare 
courage, the unpretending simplicity, and the kindness 
of his manners, his fervent and trustful piety, ensure 
for him respect and affection, and render him the fittest 
instrument for the propagation of a new faith, that has 
appeared, perhaps, in the nineteenth century." 

It was about this time, in the year 1845, that our 
venerated friend connected himself fully with the " New- 
Jerusalem Church/' But from deep-seated prejudices, 
and opposition to ecclesiastical orders of all kinds, he 
did not submit to ordination by its constituted authori- 
ties, yet did consent to receive that rite privately, which 
was administered by Dr. Lewis Beers, an aged cler- 
gyman in the New Church, at Danby. X. Y., August 
1848. His active and energetic mind now gave itself 
to the most uncompromising defence, both by writing 
and preaching, and occasional lecturing, of the truths 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 11 

of the New Jerusalem. He was invited at this time 
to the office of pastor and preacher of the New Church 
Society in the City of New York, which office he 
accepted, but resigned his pastorship after a few 
months, on account of his many literary labors, yet 
continued as preacher for about four years. His 
preaching was characterized by great simplicity and 
earnestness, with considerable emotion, a good deal of 
gesture at times, but generally subdued, and it was for 
the most part extemporaneous. Occasionally he would 
give a written sermon of superior finish and execution. 
Several of his published sermons are of this kind. 
But the draughts upon his time by his many literary 
labors, and for the press, rendered it impossible for him, 
as a general thing, to devote much time to the prepara- 
tion of sermons, and he did not, therefore, do full 
justice to himself in these performances. He felt, too, 
the trammels of the pulpit, as commonly used. He 
wanted, frequently, the freedom of the platform. The 
truth is, Professor Bush, from a child, had in him the 
elements of a deep radical character. He was more 
radical in private than he could ever be in public, 
(except perhaps in the matter of the priesthood !) and 
had it not been for his great learning, which frequently 
has the effect, more or less, to crush out, cover up, or 
entangle, the free principles of the soul in a multitude 
of other men's opinions, we could imagine him one 
whose inspirations would have carried him still further 
into the region of unpopular truth. Not that he lacked 
bravery or independence ; his immense sacrifices of 
position, income, and reputation, in going from the 
" old" church to the "new," sufficiently vindicate him 
on this score ; but still, none but a bold, deep thinker, 
with just learning enough for a good basis of solid and 
substantial thought, and but very little " learned non- 
sense " to trouble him, can appreciate fully the freedom 
and the inspiration which is intimated here, and which 
rolls from original sources. 

Prof. Bush removed to Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1854, and 



12 MEMOIRS AND REMIMSCENCE9 

preached to the New Church Society there for about 
seven years. He was not without troubles arising 
from the usual parish sources, from conflicting opinions, 
and from inferior and differing minds, but he endeared 
himself very greatly to his society and church, and is 
remembered with much esteem and affection. One 
peculiarity which distinguished his public religious ser- 
vices was his explanation of the Holy Scriptures while 
reading them, — a work for which he used to prepare 
with great care, and which formed a very interesting 
and instructive part of the service. 

The Professor, too, at this time, and for several 
years, had an immense correspondence, at home and 
abroad. England, Scotland, France, Germany, most 
of the places known to the New Church throughout 
the world, came in for a share of his epistolary com- 
munication, and his labors in this respect formed no 
inconsiderable item of his duties. He frequently had 
a hundred letters in a week. 

He gave also considerable attention to lecturing. 
As an evidence of his success in this department of 
labor, which, however, in this instance, must have been 
a little before the distinct avowal of his New Church 
faith, take the following from a paper published in 
Salem, Mass. 

PROFESSOR BUSH AT SALEM. 

" Professor Bush delivered the last lecture of his second 
course on Scriptural Antiquities and Prophecy, at the Lyceum 
Hall, on Friday evening. The lecture room, as during his 
previous course, was crowded to excess every evening, in spite 
of rain and storm. 

After he had concluded on Friday evening, the auditors re- 
mained, on motion of Col. H. K. Oliver, to offer a suitable 
expression of their sense of the value and interest of the 
Lectures. The meeting was organized by the choice of Hon. 
Daniel A. "White, as Chairman, and John Chapman, as Secre- 
tary, and on motion of Col. Oliver, it was voted that a Com- 
mittee consisting of four clergymen of different religious de- 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 13 

nominations, and three laymen, be selected by the Chair to 
prepare resolutions expressive of the sense of the meeting. 
The following gentlemen were accordingly appointed : — 

Rev. Brown Emerson, D. D., Rev. Charles "W". Upham, 
Rev. Joseph Banvard, Rev. L. S. Everett, Benj. P. Chamber- 
lain, Esq., Henry K. Oliver, Esq., Joseph G. Sprague, Esq. 

The Committee thereupon retired, and after consultation, 
submitted through their Chairman, Rev. Dr. Emerson, the fol- 
lowing 



The Committee appointed to express, in the name of the 
audiences who have attended the lectures of Prof. Bush in 
this city, their sense of the value and interest of those lectures, 
respectfully submit the following 

Resolutions : 

1. Resolved, That the course of Lectures delivered in this 
hall by Prof. Bush, and of which a repetition has this evening 
been concluded, has imparted invaluable instruction and grati- 
fication to crowded and intelligent audiences, consisting of min- 
isters and people of the several denominations of Christians 
among us. 

2. Resolved, That the unprecedented success of this course 
of Lectures, on some of the most difficult subjects of scriptural 
interpretation and theological science, clearly show how pos- 
sible it is for an enlightened and learned teacher, by the 
exercise of candor, fairness, and the spirit of Christian cour- 
tesy, to lead us all to more noble and harmonious views of 
revealed truth. 

3. Resolved, That the thanks of this community, which has 
been so fully represented in these audiences, are cordially pre- 
sented to Prof. Bush for the great amount of information, on 
subjects of the highest interest, he has communicated ; for the 
many just and sound principles of interpretation he has sanc- 
tioned; for the excellent sentiments of Christian benevolence 
and piety he has so eloquently enforced ; and for the sublime 
and delightful anticipations of the coming glories of the church 
on earth, which he has led us with confidence to indulge. 

4. Resolved, That, in parting with Prof. Bush, we would 
express our earnest wishes and prayers, that he may long live 
to devote his time and talents to the study of the word of God ; 

2 



14- MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

we would commend him, most cordially, as a lecturer, to the 
favorable notice of the friends of Biblical learning, and (lie 
lovers of Scriptural wisdom in other communities; and \vc 
would also assure him, that, whenever it may suit his conveni- 
ence to re-visit this part of the country, he will find in Salem 
many sincere friends waiting to welcome him, and ready to 
give a candid and friendly hearing to the results of his laborious 
and matured researches. 

It being proposed that the question on the acceptance of this 
report be taken by rising, on the question being stated, the 
whole audience, male and female, simultaneously arose, and 
the report and resolutions were unanimously adopted." 

The writer of these brief memoirs had not a suffi- 
ciently intimate personal acquaintance with Prof. Bush, 
to enter largely into his character as a man ; nor is it 
necessary, as the character of this work, already made 
known, is not that of biography from a single author, 
and the many contributions from other sources are 
sufficiently full and interesting. The first time the 
writer remembers to have seen the Professor was at 
his famous study — " den of learning," as it has appro- 
priately been called, in Nassau Street, New York. I 
saw him then in company with Andrew Jackson Davis, 
the Poughkeepsie Seer and Clairvoyant, and Rev. 
William Fishbough, of Williamsburg. It was an oc- 
casion of much curiosity to me. I was not then an 
initiate into the New Church truths, but was on the 
way there, building wiser than I knew. It is no 
vanity, surely, to say that in sound first principles of 
theology, in a pure theosophy, and in a rational spirit- 
ualism, I felt myself more than a match for the Profes- 
sor ; though I could not enter into such a presence 
without a reverence and a shyness altogether becoming. 
I was curious to know what such a man could say as 
to solid first principles of the Universe. And I dis- 
tinctly remember how the Professor eyed me, giving 
me one of those penetrating glances, or rather a suc- 
cession of them, with so much mildness and good 
nature, evidently taking my gauge, aud revolving in 



OP PROF. GEOP.GE BUSH. 15 

his mind what book he could most successfully recom- 
mend to me to meet my case and satisfy my inquiries. 
And when he recommended to me, two or three times 
over, Swedenborg's Divine Love and Wisdom, I con- 
fess to a little disappointment. Why could not the 
Professor himself answer my questions, there and then ? 
But whether it was on account of too precious time, 
or a sagacity more far-seeing than I had any idea of, 
so it was, and I departed without any satisfaction. 
But ever since then, his face and his spirit have haunt- 
ed me like a vision. How could it be, coming along 
as I was so rapidly into the light, that I could long 
forego his better acquaintance ? 

My best acquaintance, however, with the Professor, 
commenced and was continued by letter. I was at 
Cambridge, Mass. It was here that the first distinct 
rays of the New Church light dawned upon my dark- 
ened vision. And oh ! that " Statement of Reasons ;" 
and also, those " Letters to a Trinitarian ;" and that 
questionable work — " MesmerandSwedenborg!" Those 
" Memorabilia," too — shall I ever forget them ? And 
the charm of that beautiful style, so terse and ener- 
getic. I need not say that the Professor has certainly 
done as much for me, perhaps, as any other New Church 
writer, after my first reception of the fundamental 
truth of the Lord. " The Statement of Reasons" was a 
perfect stream of beauty and truth. It had a fascina- 
tion for me which I do not remember, in so great a 
measure, of any work of its size. And so cheap, too ! 
— would that they might fly, as doves to the windows, 
all over the land. Large extracts from this will appear 
in another article of this volume. 

The work on " Mesmer and Swedenborg; or, the 
Relation of the Developments of Mesmerism to the 
Doctrines and Disclosures of Swedenborg," was pub- 
lished in 1847. It is a 12mo. of 288 pages. The 
object of the work was " to elevate the phenomena of 
mesmerism to a higher plane than that on which they 
have been wont to be contemplated." Not, however, 



16 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

by any means, says the author, " to place the main 
evidence of Swedenborg's truth on the basis of the 
discoveries made through mesmerism. They are held 
to rest upon the immovable ground of their internal 
character — of their accordance at once with the voice 
of Reason and the voice of Revelation. The Church 
of the New Jerusalem, to which his announcements 
have, under God, given birth, is not to be considered as 
compromised, in any point of its faith, by what is in 
these pages given to the world." Yet notwithstand- 
ing all the cautions of the Professor on this head, the 
work in question met with the most lugubrious recep- 
tion from the conservative portion of the Church ; the 
New Jerusalem Magazine was loud in its condemna- 
tion, and the older members of the Church were full of 
fear, lest the divine and transcendent revelations made 
to the New Church should be compromised and lower- 
ed by being brought into comparison with the mes- 
meric phenomena. No doubt, there was some little 
occasion for this fear ; but when we consider, at this 
day and stage of experience, the whole character and 
drift of the book, the numerous and copious quotations 
from Swedenborg, and the subjects of great interest 
thereby illustrated, we can find but very little, if any, 
just cause for these prevalent fears. " There is," 
says the Professor, "just the same ground [and no 
more] for affirming that Isaiah, and Daniel, and John 
were mesmerized, as that Swedenborg was." And to 
speak from experience, we well remember that the 
work was of peculiar service to us, at a time of transi- 
tion of our own faith, and so it has proved with hun- 
dreds if not thousands of minds. It was designed for a 
transition work, to help those over the bridge of dark- 
ness who had not as yet a clear vision of the eternal 
realities, and it has admirably accomplished the use 
for which it was intended. We doubt if even one 
mind has ever fallen from the rational heights of a 
New Church faith, or one been prevented from entering 
the gates of the Holy City, by the perusal of this work. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 17 

On the contrary, many minds have been cheered and 
enlightened by it, and led on to the crowning vision. 

While on this matter of mesmerism, we may take 
occasion to remark the very great and exciting interest 
which prevailed on this subject in New York and 
other places, and the controversy which was called 
forth at this time from the savans and the notables in 
the secular and religious papers. Among these, Pro- 
fessor Bush, and Professor Lewis, of the New York 
University, were for several months in pitched battle 
in the Tribune and New York Observer, and com- 
manded a large share of the public attention. The 
controversy waxed long and loud. No small quantity 
of spice and pepper was expended to season the public 
dish, and the war raged magnanimously on all sides. 
Dr. Pond, of the Bangor Theological Seminary, Dr. 
Woods, of Andover, Rev. B. F. Barrett, and others, 
with the whole subject of clairvoyance, A. J. Davis, 
Swedenborg, etc., came in for a share in the strife, and 
the editors reaped a rich harvest of all spiritual and 
mystical things. The boy Davis was at that lime 
triumphant ; and came as near as any other youth of 
twenty, to raising a hubbub on this planet, and con- 
founding all the wisdom of the learned. But on the 
whole, we cannot doubt that much good was done on 
the occasion, and much truth elicited in matters of a 
deep and absorbing interest. " But the world, espe- 
cially the Christian world," says the Professor, at the 
close of one of his long and pungent epistles, " is yet 
to be instructed that every thing supernatural is not 
necessarily infallible ; and this, I doubt not, is the 
grand lesson designed, by an overruling Providence, to 
be taught by the permitted appearance at this day, of 
the present, most stupendous psychological phenome- 
na." It was about this time also, from 1845 to 1847, 
that several other smaller works of the Professor ap- 
peared, viz: " Statement of Reasons [before mention- 
ed] for embracing the Doctrines and Disclosures of 
Swedenborg ;" a large, closely printed pamphlet of 



18 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

twenty-eight pages; and " Da via' Revelations Reveal- 
ed: being a Critical Examination of the Character and 
Claims of that Work in its Relations to the Teachings 
of Svvedenborg." He was assisted in this work by 
Rev. B. F. Barrett. The ground taken by the review- 
ers is, that the book is genuine, or in other words, 
that it is what it claims to be, on the score of origin, — 
that it is the bona fide production of young Davis 
when in an abnormal state, — that it is, moreover, an 
able work in a variety of respects, especially in its 
scientific and philosophical departments — that it is 
only a narrow prejudice which will refuse to admit its 
manifold merits ; but that nevertheless it is one of the 
most cunning weapons ever forged by the emissaries 
of the pit (though much of it may be an honest igno- 
rance), to blind and pervert the minds of men. That 
its theology is false and pernicious, its character in 
many respects blasphemous, and that consequently, 
while it remains an unparalleled wonder on its psy- 
chological side, it is still utterly devoid of the least 
particle of authority as an oracle from the other world. 
The scope of the pamphlet is to solve the problem 
of the strong mixture of truth and error which runs 
through the work. This the writers do by the aid of 
Swedenborg's transcendent teachings. 

Another little work may be mentioned here — A Re- 
ply to Ralph Waldo Emerson's Lecture on Sweden- 
borg, being a Lecture delivered in the Odeon, Boston, 
1846. This has always been admired for its beauty 
and truth, and its admirable encounter of so fascina- 
ting a writer. It shows very clearly how round and 
beautiful a natural mind may exist, and how well 
stocked, while still, for the want of a distinct opening 
of a more interior region, a philosopher may babble 
the vainest things. Still, it is a credit to Emerson 
that he spoke so ably as he did. 

In the next year, 1847, came out also the Profes- 
sor's " Reply to Rev. Dr. Woods' Lectures on Swe- 
denborgianism, delivered in the Theological Seminary, 



OF PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 19 

Andover, Mass." It was a calm, critical, and some- 
what extended review of Dr. Woods' book, being a 
large octavo of 256 closely printed pages, evincing his 
usual candor, kindness, and courtesy, combined with 
severe logic, and a manly, energetic style. The fol- 
lowing extract from a Notice to the Reader sufficiently 
indicates the object of this Reply, and the course 
which the author pursued^ : 

" As the Editor [of the Swedenborg Library] has found it 
difficult in managing the present Reply, to compress it within 
the limits originally designed, and still do justice to the subject, 
he has concluded to allow himself to write more at ease, and 
extend the work as the subject-matter seemed to demand. 
The opportunity strikes him as too favorable to be lost, not 
only to answer, as best he may, the prominent objections urged 
by Dr. Woods, but also to present somewhat fully the grand 
distinguishing features of the New Church system in contrast 
with the doctrines which form the theology of the mass of 
Protestant Christendom. He has accordingly determined to 
dwell at considerable length on the more important points of 
difference between the two systems, especially the Trinity, the 
Atonement, Justification, Predestination, Resurrection, and the 
various related topics. On all these heads he has aimed to 
bring out the views propounded by Swedenborg in such strong 
relief, that whatever may be their effect on the reader's mind, 
they shall at least leave no room hereafter for misunderstand- 
ing as to what our doctrines really are and upon what grounds 
they rest." 

Again the Professor says, " he has the satisfaction 
of believing that not one [objection to the claims of 
Swedenborg urged by Dr. Woods] of any importance 
has been left unnoticed." And from the thoroughness 
of the work, no attentive reader will be inclined to 
doubt this. We here quote from a notice that ap- 
peared in the New York Tribune at that time. 

" Dr. Woods' has urged many objections to Swedenborg's 
claims ; the principal of which are, that he rejects a part of 
the Scriptures ; that he taught the existence of an internal or 



20 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

spiritual sense to the Scriptures ; that he claimed to have 
seen and held open intercourse with angels and spirits for 
many years ; that he taught a doctrine concerning the Trinity, 
Atonement, Redemption, Regeneration, Resurrection, Heaven, 
Hell, etc., etc., quite at variance with the doctrine on these sub- 
jects which has generally been believed by the mass of profes- 
sing Christians ; that he wrought no miracles ; that his doctrine 
respecting the intercourse of the sexes is immoral and tin- 
scriptural. All these, together with many other minor objec- 
tions urged by Dr. "Woods, Professor Bush has taken up and 
answered in a manner that can hardly fail to command the 
respect even of those whom his arguments may fail to con- 
vince. He does not deny that the doctrines taught by Swe- 
denborg are quite different on nearly all points from those com- 
monly professed by Christians ; and he professes himself ready 
to defend them on rational and Scriptural grounds. He ex- 
presses regret that the opponents of Swedenborg's claims to a 
divine illumination have uniformly shown an unwillingness to 
grapple with the principles and doctrines announced by him, 
and to test his claims by the intrinsic reasonablene-s and 
truth of these; but that, instead of this, they have endeavored 
to create an odium against him and his doctrines, by repre- 
senting the latter as ' differing from what are termed the 
ortliodox standards, which we are ready to grant in the outset' 
without argument. 9 'But,' he adds, 'we distinctly take our 
stand in the assertion that the commonly received doctrines of 
the Trinity, Atonement, Justification by Faith alone, Predes- 
tination, Resurrection and Regeneration, are intrinsically un- 
scriptural and false, and that a true issue between us and our 
opponents can only be made upon these points.' We would 
add, that all wdio desire to see how Dr. Woods' objections to 
Swedenborgianism appear when seen by the side of a defence 
from one who has made himself thoroughly master of the 
sy.-tem, cannot do better than procure and read this Reply by 
Professor Bush." 

In 1848, the Professor published a Sermon on 
" Life : its Origin, Gradations, Forms, and Issues," 
which attracted a good deal of attention from the 
learned and scientific, it being an attempt to answer 
the question so long unanswered, as to the whole 
subject of vital action, whether in man, animals, or 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 21 

vegetables. This vital principle has been variously 
ascribed to heat, light, electricity, the nervous in- 
fluence, the immediate action of the Deity, etc. The 
Professor, by the help of Swedenborg's philosophy of 
influx, was enabled to solve this problem so lumin- 
ously, and with such copious illustration, that it com- 
manded very considerable attention, and though only 
a sermon, preached originally in New York, it was 
afterwards republished iu London, with a likeness and 
biographical notice of the author, and passed through 
three or four editions. 

In 1849, January 4th, the Professor was united in 
second marriage with Miss Mary W. Fisher, of New 
York. His children by this marriage were three, — 
two sons and a daughter. 

In 1850, appeared the " Letters to a Trinitarian ; 
or, the Doctrine of the Tripersonality of Jehovah in- 
consistent with the Truth of the Incarnation" — an 
octavo pamphlet of 138 pages. These Letters were 
first published, with the exception of the one on 
Atonement, in the " New Church Repository" of 
1848, a Monthly Magazine conducted by the author. 
They were "addressed to a gentleman* of high lit- 
erary and theological repute, though not a clergyman, 
and whose strong adherence to that form of doc- 
trine known in the American churches as orthodox 
evangelical, rendered him, to [his] mental eye, an 
impersonation of the peculiar aspect of the Trinitarian 
dogma with which [he] would contrast the teachings 
of the New Church." These Letters are remarkable, 
like all the rest of our author's writings, for their 
learning and fulness, for their beauty and clearness of 
style, and for their great convincingness. The writer 
well remembers how deep was the impression pro- 
duced upon him by their perusal, when a copy of them 
was presented to him by the friendly author. We 
know of no book upon the subject which contains ' so 
much in so little, and so admirably put. It is now 

* Dr. Taylor Lewis, Professor of Greek in the University at New York. 



22 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

out of print, but the plates are in reserve, and it ought 
to have a very popular circulation. Among the sub- 
jects treated of are The Angel Jehovah, The Divine 
Humanity, Jehovah-Jesus, The Incarnation, The Glo- 
rification, The Atonement, Practical Results. 

In 1855, the Professor published a volume of " New 
Church Miscellanies, or Essays Ecclesiastical, Doc- 
trinal, and Ethical;" being a reprint of articles which 
originally appeared from his own hand in the " New 
Church Repository." It is a 12mo. of 372 pages. 
Among the subjects there discussed are Preaching, 
The Priesthood, The Order Party and the Liberty 
Party, Aphorisms on Slavery and Abolition, Pseudo 
Spiritualism, and Sleep. 

In 1857, appeared his noted work — "Priesthood and 
Clergy unknown to Christianity," 12mo., pp. 168. This 
was the most radical and unpopular work the Pro- 
fessor ever published. He did not affix his name to it, 
but gave for authorship the name of " Compaginator." 
As this work is reviewed at length by another hand, 
in a separate article of this book, we make no further 
notice of it here. 

One of the most important labors that Prof. Bush 
ever engaged in was the editing of " The New Church 
Repository, and Monthly Review : devoted to the Ex- 
position of the Philosophy and Theology taught in the 
Writings of Emanuel Swedenborg." This work was 
commenced in January, 1848, and continued through 
eight years. It was a work of great value and interest, 
consisting of exposition, discussion, information, re- 
views, scriptural exegesis, and miscellany. It was 
learned, dignified, courteous, and high toned. It oc- 
cupied a place in the New Church that has never been 
so occupied, before nor since. And a great vacancy 
have we felt since its suspension. It corresponded 
somewhat to the London " Intellectual Repository." 
It was just such a periodical as no one in this country 
but Prof. Bush could conduct, and was enriched with 
all his literary and theological wealth. It had a re- 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 23 

spectablc share of correspondents, but after being push- 
ed for the space of eight years, it was compelled to dis- 
continue for want of patronage. Its average number 
of subscribers was from eight to nine hundred. It 
netted the Professor, free from all expenses, about two 
hundred and fifty dollars a year. 

It was in this Magazine that the publication of 
Swedenborg's Diary was commenced, translated from 
the original Latin. Rev. Mr. Smithson, of England, 
had translated the first volume, and Prof. Bush gave 
the third and a part of the second, a few articles at a 
time, in continuous numbers of the Repository. 

It was here, also, that many contributors came with 
their questioning missiles, with their opposition faces, 
and it was here that the writer himself once buckled 
on his armor and threw down the gauntlet for the ac- 
ceptance of the brave Professor. It was about the year 
1851. The subject was the long-cherished one of the 
non-eternity of the hells. At that time I was a Restora- 
tionist. I had no idea of encountering the Professor 
to the extent and fulness that I did; I had only pre- 
pared my article at considerable length, read it in 
private to Mr. Robert Carter, of Cambridge, who then 
advised me to send it to the Repository. 1 acted upon 
this hint. And lo ! the batteries were opened with 
a right good gusto on both sides. We labored for 
months. Of course we were both victors, and though, 
a few years after, I was compelled to acknowledge 
beaten in the main principle of the controversy, yet, 
mejudice, and by the Professor's own private acknowl- 
edgments since, there were several points in that argu- 
ment which were never answered, and which he at least 
could not answer. And it may be recorded here, that 
though the Professor never could see how the end of 
evil was to be accomplished, and never had a positive 
faith that it would be, yet in his last years his faith on 
this point was much modified, the sterner holds of it- 
relaxed, and he was far from considering it a settled 
and undisputed point. 



24 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

In all my relations with the Professor, there always 
prevailed the utmost courtesy and good feeling, and 
we could still differ and be friends. I was attracted by 
his simplicity, but tremendously afraid of his learning. 
And sometimes, I think, he dreaded my abstract and 
metaphysical pugnacity. " It is doubtless inexpedient 
for me to glory, I will come to visions and " - — - — - 
revelations yet unknown. I record it because the 
Professor himself was interested in it; and whether it 
grew out of our hostile relations, or our mutual vic- 
tories, or his or my particular warfare, or has relation 
to something yet in the future, it was certainly a very 
formidable presentation, and if it were fired off, accord- 
ing to its manifest character and capacity, it were cer- 
tainly enough to awake any sleeper, and arouse him 
from his death-like slumbers. It was a huge, enormous 
brass cannon, full eight feet in length, of tremendous 
bore, on a correspondingly heavy brass carriage, with 
great brass wheels, and the name of PROF. BUSH, 
in large capitals, printed on the top of it ! I had never 
seen such a cannon before — so heavy a cannon and so 
great. I delivered it to the Professor — not the cannon, 
but the vision of it — and with all his skill in symbolism 
and ancient prophecy, he confessed he could not inter- 
pret it, unless it meant the whole gist of our controversy 
fired off in the pages of the Repository ! 

To come back again to facts and realities, the Profes- 
sor was ever considered, by those who knew him, as a 
marvel of simplicity, truthfulness, and scholarship. He 
stood head and shoulders above every other man in 
the New Church in this country, if not in the world. 
Though when I make this remark, I am aware it is 
liable to misunderstanding, and may excite an un- 
reasonable prejudice. But if ripe and unexampled 
scholarship, (I mean, of course, in the New Church) the 
mastery of several languages, the highest proficiency 
4n Oriental and Biblical literature, antiquities, and his- 
tory in general; a general information in almost every 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 25 

accomplished writer, taking rank side by side with the 
best and most reputable authors of our own day ; and 
also, a preacher and a lecturer of acknowledged power 
aud ability wherever known; — if all this, in connec- 
tion with his indomitable industry, his voluminous pub- 
lications, standard works even now, both in and out of 
the New Church ; and his acknowledged acquaintance 
and thoroughness in the New Church theology itself, 
with his great efficiency in the church on both conti- 
nents ; — if all this can place one above his fellows in any 
measure, then did he truly stand head and shoulders 
above us all. 

Here it may be remarked, too, what a correspondent 
has very truly suggested, concerning his dignity of 
bearing and his real greatness, " compared with such 
men as the Beechers, the Huntingtons, and the many 
other theological celebrities of the day, who, while 
their faces would seem to be turned somewhat towards 
the New Jerusalem, yet from whatever defects or mo- 
tives, cannot reflect from it more than an uncertain and 
bewildering light on the Christian world around them." 
The influence of Professor Bush, both by his labors 
and example, will continue to be felt long after all the 
disturbances which have served somewhat to obscure 
and obstruct it, have passed away. " The world is 
already indebted to it for much that is bringing it 
into a state of greater light and freedom, and the 
time will surely come when it will be felt with daily 
increasing strength and power. The labors of Pro- 
fessor Bush, like the labors of Clowes, and Hartley, 
and Tafel, will be hereafter regarded as of unspeak- 
able value by all who are sincerely desirous of learn- 
ing the truth. How profitless, how ridiculous, how 
totally insignificant, are the narrow-minded bicker- 
ings and unmeaning controversies which now disturb 
the peace and harmony- of the church, compared with 
the dignified labors of the men whose names I have 
just mentioned ! * * * It was this unfortunate, 
this uncharitable spirit, that alienated the minds of 
3 



26 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

some New Churchmen from Professor Bush, and which,- 
when he felt that estrangement, must have alienated, 
although we have reason to believe not to the same 
degree, his mind from them. What a grave rebuke 
might the writer of his life administer to all New 
Churchmen who indulge in this spirit, whether learned 
or unlearned, whether in the convention or out of it.' ? * 
It may be mentioned also in this connection, how 
very conscious the Professor was of the unpopularity 
of many of his views in his own church, and yet how 
conscientiously he sacrificed his private interests to 
them. We quote from a letter of his addressed to the 
above correspondent. 

" I have been aware from the outset, that my sentiments, 
such as they are, would throw me out of the sympathies of a 
great portion of the church, and yet the consciousness of this 
fact has never had the slightest influence in shaking my con- 
fidence in the substantial truth of the principles I have advo- 
cated. Consequently the adverse opinion of the church and 
the world combined leaves me unmoved in my position. 

My grand conviction is, that under the existing order of 
things, the mass of the church is released or discharged from 
the duty of contributing to build up the spiritual lite of the 
general bod}'. The work is taken out of their hands by a 
separate and distinct class [the clergy] for which I find no 
authority as it relates to the New Church." 

To the same corrrespondent he writes : — 

" I am inclined to think that you would not on the whole 
gain much by forsaking your quiet retiracy among the moun- 
tains tor a position nearer the centre of New Church life in our 
country. I find a lack of the love element, among professed 
New Church men. They are strong in truth, but weak in 
charity. However, I manage to live witli them, and they with 
me." 

We should like to go further into the character of 
our subject, but we cannot. We would not in i he least 

* A. J. Cline. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 27 

attempt to idolize or exaggerate either his greatness or 
his goodness. He would rebuke us severely if we did. 
He was a very humble man, and we would speak only 
truthfully of him. 

Of course the Professor had faults. It would be 
surprising if such a man had not peculiar faults. But 
we cannot enumerate them, not being sufficiently inti- 
mate with his personal history to pronounce a verdict. 
Thankfully, humbly, do we pass them over in silence ; 
and if no other hand offers to present them for chari- 
table inspection, instruction, and admonition, let not 
ours venture upon the hallowed ground. For we feel 
that the very faults of such a man (his character being 
more fully portrayed in the friendly contributions which 
follow this brief notice) introduce us to consecrated 
memories. While, however, we had not much intimate 
personal connection with him, and cannot speak of him 
as a man in the privacies of his own more immediate 
life, we knew him well as a writer, and would here 
fain speak of one characteristic which sometimes, to 
our eye as well as to that of others, took the quality of 
a fault with him. It was his great posilivcucss, with 
which he would sometimes bear down upon an oppo- 
nent, or in the pursuit of his own theme, greater than 
the evidence would warrant. He had a tremendous 
will, though not what is ordinarily called obstinate ; 
and when once set in any particular direction, like a 
ship at full speed, with all sails set, and every literary 
rope strained to its utmost tension, he would press on 
in his course with the most persevering assurance : — an 
assurance, we have thought sometimes, not fully felt 
in the reason, but very determinedly so in the will. 
This was a weakness. He seemed to be aware of it 
himself, in his moments of reflection, and thus speaks 
of it in a letter to a friend. 

" If you continue to write, I shall probably continue 
to read, but the encouragement, I fear, is rather poor 
for making any impression. I suppose we are consti- 
tuted differently. My mind is more of the affirmative 



28 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

order. When the general evidence of Swedenborg's 
illumination is satisfactory, as it is, I am afraid to ven- 
ture into the region of negations. This is no doubt a 
sign of a certain mental weakness, to which I frankly 
own up, and am willing to avow it before the world. 
At the same time I do not consider myself a blind 
receiver of any body's ipsi dixits. But in this case my 
head and my heart are both entirely satisfied" etc. 

Here is, undoubtedly, a trait of commendable mod- 
esty, and at the same time a source of over-confidence 
which may sometimes run into the fault alluded to. 
But we merely mention it, as one which we have some- 
times been made to feel ourself, and which others have 
realized under the same pressure. 

It has been truly said, in some of the articles which 
follow, that the Professor was a man of prayer. I am 
happy to bear testimony to this quality of his charac- 
ter. I have had conversations with him on this sub- 
ject, and can relate a pleasant incident. His prayers 
were very earnest and fervent. Both in public and in 
private, he deeply felt the need of this exercise, and 
was not at all satisfied with the so exclusive use of 
the Lord's prayer in many New Church worshipping 
assemblies. He enjoyed, and was inspired with, extem- 
poraneous prayer. He felt that his wants were specific 
as well as general, and though no one could understand 
better than he the folly of dictation, and selfish im- 
portunity for particular blessings, thinking thereby to 
change the Lord's will, yet he did understand the 
inspiration from the Lord of all true prayer, particular 
as well as general. And he delighted to indulge in it. 
He knew that God could answer what He himself 
inspired, without any change at all. And he knew that 
the Lord was glad to give his children prayer. He 
would get up sometimes even in the night, and go 
away to another room, and pray so earnestly and 
loudly, that his wife, not knowing the cause of his 
utterances, and thinking that some trouble had befallen 
him, would become alarmed for his safety, and go seek- 



OF PROF. GEOCGE RUSH. 29 

iiig him. "Leave me alone, leave me alone, a little 
while," he would say, " and I will be back soon." 

I once wrote and preached a sermon on Charity, the 
Bond of Perfectness. The Professor afterwards had 
it read, one Sunday when he was sick, at his church in 
Brooklyn. Meeting him a few days after — "Well," 
said he, " you have told us what charity is, and how 
good it is, but you havn't told us sufficiently how to 
promote it. I have been wanting to speak to you 
about it. Now, how do you think charity can be best 
promoted? What particular means, more than an- 
other?" I looked him in the face, being rather unpre- 
pared for so sudden a question, and, said I, " perhaps 
you may be thinking of some particular means that 
don't occur to me now." " Well," said he, " what do 
you think?" After naming several things — " all very 
well," said he, " but you havn't named what I mean 
yet. I mean prayer." Then he went on to describe 
how important prayer was for every thing, and particu- 
larly for the promotion of brotherly love and charity. 
He dwelt especially upon the importance of breaking 
down the self-hood in audience with the Deity, coming 
into humiliation thus before God, and by confessions, 
supplications and strivings, bringing into our hearts 
the quality of the infinite Father — of universal love 
and unity, and so doing that very thing in private 
which we ought always to do in public, and in all our 
daily intercourse with our fellow men ! For, if the 
prayer is true and sincere, or in so far as it is a prayer, 
there is, flowing into the heart at these times, the spirit 
that unites the universe, — that shames all domination 
and conceit, — that crushes under foot all private in- 
terests, — that says to all hatred, pride, vanity, ill-will, 
" Get thee behind me, Satan ; thou art an offence unto 
me," — and that causes happiness, and love, and joy, 
to overspread all faces and to rule in all hearts. 

I went immediately home to ray boarding place in 
New York, and wrote a sermon from John xvii. 20, 21, 
26: — "Means for the Promotion of Brotherly Love 



30 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

and Charity." In the conclusion, I introduced this 
matter of prayer. As it happened, the Professor came 
into my room the very day I finished it, and I read it 
to him. Never shall I forget the simple satisfaction he 
appeared to feel in thus hearing his own ideas so ex- 
pressed by another. It was the last time but one, I 
think, that I ever saw him. I saw then, too plainly, 
the pale seal of death upon his face, and heard the 
hollow, premonitory cough. In the course of our con- 
versation, I happened to remark upon the answer to 
prayer, long after we have forgotten the prayer, and 
even forgotten that we asked for this or that particu- 
lar blessing; — and that we are only brought to re- 
membrance of the prayer, sometimes, by the unex- 
pected bestowment of the blessing. " Yes," said he, 
" and thus we are really taken better care of than we 
take of ourselves." 

I was with him in the desk the last day he ever 
entered a pulpit. It was Sunday, Feb. 6th, 1859, 
on the occasion of the dedication of the New Jerusa- 
lem house of worship, in 35th street, New York. He 
preached in the evening of that day, for the last time 
of his life. His subject was " New Church Life," 
from Eph. iv. 16 — a fitting theme for the end of all 
his preaching. Little did any of us then think that 
this was his last appearance in a pulpit. 

The last public work that the Professor was engaged 
in was the preparation of an " Exposition of the Four 
Gospels, according to the Internal Sense, as unfolded 
by Swcdenborg, and classified and arranged by Rev. 
John Clowes ; with Additional Notes and Illustrations, 
Critical and Explanatory." These additions had a pre- 
vailing reference to the clearer determination of the 
spiritual sense. A portion of the work was devoted 
to the harmonizing of certain important apparent dis- 
crepancies in the Evangelical narratives. The critical 
notes, instead of being confined to the criticism of the 
text, embraced copious extracts from Swedenborg him- 
self, and from various New Church writers, " calculated 



OF PKOF. GEORGE BUSH. . 31 

to conduct the reader into the deeper recesses of the 
Inspired Word." It was published in numbers. It 
promised to be a very valuable work, but only three 
numbers appeared, when its gifted author was arrested 
in his labors by the progress of disease, and was obliged 
to quit all and retire to the country. This was in 
April, 1859. He moved to Rochester, N. Y. His chief 
motive was a recovery of his health ; but he hoped, also, 
that in due time a way would be open to preach the 
Gospel there to any who should desire it. He went on 
to a farm which was kindly offered him by a cousin of 
his, Capt. Harding, connected with which was a beauti- 
ful cottage, and every surrounding which might minister 
to the sense of beauty, or the comfort of the physical 
frame. The following extract from a letter to a friend 
at that time shows something of his expectations in 
a worldly point of view. 

" I am living on a little farm of sixteen acres of 
most excellent land, which I have had stocked with 
first rate crops, and it is from this source we expect to 
pay our rent, $350. We have a grand orchard with 
grand prospects. Probably we shall have about five 
hundred barrels of choice grafted apples, which will of 
itself make quite an item of income. Thus far all has 
been outgo, and I am getting near the end of my rope. 
But the Lord will provide." 

Alas, how true it was that he was getting near also 
to the end of his days ! The grand orchard, the rich 
crops — he was going to the fairer harvest of another 
world ! He writes also at this time : — " My health is 
very much impaired — indeed I may say pretty com- 
pletely broken down. The grand difficulty is probably 
an organic disease of the heart, but secondary to this 
is a most astonishing weakness of the limbs, so that 
walking a few times across the room overcomes me 
with fatigue. I can scarcely make any exertion, and 
am obliged to sit still most of the day. I have not 
been able to resume my studies an' 
uncertain whether I ever shall be." 



32 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

It was some time before this, however, that his 
health began to decline. As nearly as we can gather, 
the following particulars, furnished by a lady friend 
w T ho took them down from his widow, contain the 
history of his sickness and death. During the winter 
and spring of 1848, he experienced very serious symp- 
toms, and was troubled by a racking cough. But 
during the summer and fall, he seemed to gain his 
accustomed health. In midwinter, however, he took 
cold, and while at Syracuse, whither he went to marry 
a couple, an ulcer appeared under the arm. On his 
return, a cough set in. It was by the advice of 
physicians, as well as what appeared to be his own 
necessities, that he removed to Rochester, sanguine 
that he should recover his health and complete his 
work. lie anticipated working in his garden for ex- 
ercise, and laboring on the Commentary he had com- 
menced, as he could bear it. But after reaching his 
rural home, he never opened any book but the Divine 
Word, Thomas a' Kernpis, and the Village Hymns. 
It was his habit during his life, after family worship, 
to read the Word in the original. This he continued 
till within six weeks of his departure. His life-long 
habit of earnest prayer seemed to increase as he 
neared the Celestial City. He would often fall on his 
knees and wrestle with God like Jacob of old. He 
always greeted his friends with cordiality, and fully 
appreciated the great kindness that was shown him 
and his family, both by those of the New and the Old 
Church. On looking out one day upon the trees, 
hanging full of blossoms, he said — "I see the blos- 
soms, but I shall be laid away before the fruit ripens." 

He often repeated — " He hath weakened my 
strength in the way." He had great faith in the 
power of prayer, and once remarked — " If our New 
Church people were like the Old, and would get 
together and pray, I think my life might be length- 
ened ;" — and then alluded to the fifteen years added 
to Jeremiah's life. He had no shrinking from death, 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 66 

but dreaded the final struggle. He spoke cheerfully 
of his departure, with those who called, but avoided 
the subject in the presence of those to whom it was 
agony. When some one spoke of the swelling of his 
feet, he said it gave him satisfaction as an evidence 
that he was nearing the other world, but that when he 
thought of his family, he felt otherwise. 

During his sickness he would often repeat verses 
from Scripture in the original Hebrew, but would 
correct himself for the sake of those present, and then 
repeat them in English. 

His physicians were full of kindness and devotion 
to the last, and it was his express desire that grateful 
mention should be made of this. 

When asked if he regretted having left the city of 
Brooklyn, he replied — " No, this is the place for me 
to die in, and Mount Hope the place to rest." 

He was confined to his bed only three weeks. He 
had for a number of years wished to make Elmwood 
Cottage, (this abode at Rochester) his home. An 
aunt and a cousin of his had died in the room 
which Professor and Mrs. Bush proposed to take as 
their sleeping-room. On learning this fact, Mrs. Bush 
changed her plan, taking this room for his study, and 
a chamber above for his sleeping-room, from an un- 
defined dread that if he slept in that fatal room he 
would be more likely to die there. So she arranged it 
for his study, and did her utmost to give it a bright 
and cheerful aspect. But the Divine Will had ordered 
it otherwise. As he became obliged to climb up stairs 
on his hands and knees, she thought it best for him to 
sleep on a sofa-bedstead in the study, till he gained 
strength. And there he slept his last sleep, in the 
very spot where she had determined he should not 
even lay himself down to rest even for a night, lest 
pcrad venture there might be some fatality about it. 

A medical gentleman residing in one of the Western 
cities, who chanced to be in Rochester a short time 
before the death of Professor Bush, writes as fol- 
lows : — 



34 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

" At the request of an eminent consulting physician, 
and in company with him, I visited Professor Bush a 
few days before he changed worlds. We found him 
very prostrate, but so calm, placid, and peaceful was 
his every feature that, to me, it seemed as if that 
peace which the world knoweth not of was radiating 
from the inmost of his spirit, and manifesting itself 
through every lineament. 

" Making my words few as possible, I told him that 
myself and family had become deeply interested in his 
writings, and that we felt the keenest disappointment 
at his pen having fallen before he could finish his 
exegetical and explanatory comments on the Gospels. 

" I can never forget how the languid face and eye 
lighted up with an expression which words have no 
power to describe. Thanking me, he said he received 
many similar expressions of regret from many quarters, 
and that to him it was a great trial to be obliged to 
lay aside the pleasing task, when having gone only 
about half through Matthew. 

" At the close of the examination, the consulting 
physician gave an unfavorable prognosis, in very un- 
equivocal terms, and afterward offered a half apology 
for his plainness. ' Thank you, doctor,' said the Pro- 
fessor. ' It's all right ; and besides, I am so happily 
prepared for any issue. I feel that my work is done.' 
He expressed a desire to go, but added, * I must be 
quiet, and wait till the end.' " 

Ten days before he passed away, he requested to be 
left for a time alone. After about half an hour he 
called his wife to kneel down, telling her that he had 
received his white robe. He wished her to listen, that 
she might catch the heavenly music that filled his ears, ' 
and that continued till the last. When taking his 
leave of a physician who was to be married, he said — 
" He is going to take a bride upon earth; I am going 
to await mine in heaven." The day before his de- 
parture, which was the Sabbath, he was so com- 
fortable that he said that but for his extreme weakness 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 35 

he should be able to sit up and lead the family devo- 
tions. He continued comfortable till evening, when a 
friend came to'sit with him. His wife had not left 
him at night, but he urged her to go and get some 
rest. When she returned at three in the morning, he 
begged her never to leave him for another moment. 
He grew oppressed for breath, and the doors and 
windows were thrown open. In the morning he re- 
quested his wife to lead the family devotions, but grief 
rendered her unequal to the task. A friend being 
present, he told her that she might be surprised that he 
had no ecstasies, but that he had lived the life of the 
New Church, and still cherished those doctrines. 

About nine, he complained of suffocation, and wish- 
ed to be lifted, that he might cough. But the rat- 
tling continued. He, however, had no idea what it 
meant. He told his wife she must not be alone with 
him again. He dozed at intervals during the day. 
He inquired of the friend with them concerning other 
death-beds. At three, when the doctor came, he in- 
quired the meaning of the rattling, and whether he 
could not quiet it. He left some medicine, but left 
word with some one that he could not last but a few 
hours. He called his wife, saying — "I am afraid the 
doctor thinks I shall not live till morning." " No, 
Feggie," she replied, calling him by his pet name, 
" You are not afraid ; ' Though I walk through the 
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ; for 
thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they com- 
fort me.' He said — " Remember my request, Mary. 
When you see that I am near the last moment, for 
my sake and the children's, keep as calm as possible.-' 
As evening approached, he was restless, and wished 
all the family to be near him. At about dusk, his 
articulation grew indistinct. When it came George's 
hour for retiring, (his eldest son, of nine years) he 
wished him called. He took him by the hand, kissed 
him, told him to be a good boy, and kind and affec- 
tionate to his mother and sister. And when he was 



36 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

old enough, he wished him to read the New Church 
writings, for, he said, they are true. Then he kissed 
him good night, saying, " If I don't meet you again on 
earth, live so that I shall meet you in heaven." lie 
then requested his wife to kneel down and repeat the 
Lord's prayer, and then, placing her hand on his head, 
to repeat the baptismal blessing. " The Lord bless 
thee and keep thee ; the Lord make his face to shine 
upon thee and be gracious unto thee ; the Lord lift up 
his countenance upon thee and give thee peace." He 
regretted during the day that there was no minister 
sufficiently near to administer the sacrament of the 
Lord's supper. About twenty minutes before his de- 
parture, September 19, 1859, the friend who was to 
sit with him arrived. He was dozing, but on awaken- 
ing, gave him his hand and thanked him for coming. 
He wished all others but his wife to seek rest. He 
then motioned his wife to sit by him, and partly 
resting on her lap, said, " There, let it be so." A 
moment after, he opened his eyes, and looked at her. 
Then they became fixed, and he closed them himself, 
and after a feeble gasp, passed away. 



Yes, passed away ! He did not die, 
Only as heavenly spirits fly 
Up to that higher world of God, 
By angels and by scholars trod, 
To learn forever there 
Truths beauteous and fair, 
Freed from defilements of this sinful earth, 
Shining resplendent in the second birth ! 



Brave, sainted one ! what riches now — 
What honors crown thy laureled brow, 
What glories, to thy wondering eyes, 
Repay for all earth's sacrifice 

Of place and power and pelf, 
Of nature's pride and self, 
While thy freed spirit, sanctified and blest, 
Mounts ever upward to its heavenly rest ! 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 37 

O saint, O scholar, hail to thee ! 
Thy white-robed immortality — 
Blest vision of thy dying eyes, 
Befits thee well in Paradise, 

Where truth and goodness meet 

In worship at the feet 
Of thy dear Lord whom thou didst, serve so well, 
In labors more than feeble verse can tell. 



Triumphant spirit ! star of light ! 
Par, far from all these shades of night, 
From earthly woes and sorrows free, 
Its cares, its want, its poverty, — 

The riches of the Lord, 

The glories of his Word, 
Shine their fulfilment in thy sacred soul, 
And through thy spirit-home sublimely roll. 



And wilt thou not, brave and dear ! 
Still be a powerful presence here 1 
Still cause the church on earth to feel, 
As erst to error thou didst deal, 

For Freedom's holy cause, 

For God's eternal laws, 
Strong, stalwart blows which truth will ever own, 
Priestcraft and kingcraft trembling on their throne ? 



Servant and soldier of the Lord, 
And graceful scholar of his Word, 
Farewell and hail ! Thy bright career 
Shall in full glory now appear, 

Shall bid thee ever rise 

To learning's brighter skies, 
Where heavenly science grows for such as thee, 
In God's eternal University ! 

4 



38 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

The disease which caused the death of Prof. Bush, 
was an organic disease of the liver, which the phy- 
sician believed to be a granular degeneration of that 
organ. It is one of the most common of the fatal 
diseases of the liver in temperate climates. It caused 
the abdominal dropsy, which was one of the most 
prominent symptoms of this case. The general de- 
bility which always attends this disease, also existed, 
and as usual, was the immediate cause of death. 

The disease of the liver was complicated with an- 
other — ulceration of the bowels. The mucous mem- 
brane was very much affected, and diseased throughout. 

During the last sickness, as also after his death, (it 
is a source of pleasure to record) all his friends, the Old 
Church ones as well as the New, came forward with 
the utmost readiness, offering every attention to the 
bereaved widow and children, and defraying the entire 
expenses of the funeral. And the widow will ever 
cherish in most grateful remembrance all this generous 
kindness to a stranger. The name of Dr. Bigler, in 
particular, is named with affection. 



EXTRACTS 

FROM AN OLD JOURNAL OF PROF. BUSH. 



[The following extracts are from the only Journal ever 
kept by the Professor, and contains a record of his spiritual 
and religious experience from 1821 to 1823, while under the 
" Orthodox " faith. In his later years, he never kept a jour- 
nal, not having any time for it. What follows is in many 
respects very interesting. We have omitted much, on account 
of its sameness and daily repetition, but sufficient is given of 
the most important passages to show the exercises of his mind 
at this time — his religious faith, his stragglings, his convictions 
of sin, his dai'k and dreadful conflicts, his hours of brightness 
and exultation, and his firm and steady reliance on a " crucified 
Redeemer." The New Church reader will of course perceive 
a tendency to exaggeration of certain states of feeling, and of 
sensible horror and delight, as tests of the Christian character, 
which, when submitted to the severe analysis of the " Heavenly 
Doctrines," cannot have that importance which is sometimes 
attached to them. Still, in these records of experience, we 
gain a very satisfactory glance at the deep piety of our worthy 
friend, and are led to honor the faith and the church from 
which was imported into our ranks so illustrious an example of 
all that is godly, noble, and of good report.] 

June, 1821. — I am firmly persuaded of the advan- 
tages of keeping a register of the various exercises of 
our minds from time to time, as also of the different 
providential occurrences that may take place in regard 
to us. Were it not for my habits of indolence (to my 
shame be it spoken) I might now have possessed a 
connected history of my inner self, ever since the time 



40 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

when religion began to occupy my serious attention 
and exercise a predominance over me. As it is, I can 
barely look over a kind of waste, excepting some little 
space that I kept a journal, with scarce any definite 
perception of the real nature of my experience. I can 
do little more than recollect fragments of feeling, and 
parts of spiritual perceptions. With the help of Heaven 
I will endeavor to amend in this respect, and treasure 
up in somewhat of a connected manner the train of 
religious impressions of which I may be conscious. 
And I anticipate this good effect at least: it will incite 
me to deeper self-scrutiny, a duty in which I have been 
vastly negligent heretofore. 

May 15. — For the two or three past weeks, the 
nature of my duties has been such that I have had 
little time to devote to the registering of what has 
passed in my thoughts and my heart in that time. 
One deep impression I will mention. He that looks to 
possess the peace of God, is in more danger from his 
friends than from strangers or even enemies, should he 
chance to have any. To say nothing of my own real 
character, I find a wrong state of things around me. 
There is not the spiritual converse, and the meek 
heavenly deportment which might be expected in 
Christians, and which I think I should love. And how 
does it operate upon me? Thus: — I cannot but 
suppose that these persons are true believers at bottom, 
and if they are so often in a mood to promote light 
conversation, why should I not, at least once in a while, 
join in with their cheerful talk ? I know I am not 
very pious, and why assume an air that would lead 
people to think me so ? Now this is all wrong and 
rotten at the core. In the first place it is doing violence 
to convictions of duty ; in the next place it is stum- 
bling others, perhaps, just as some are stumbling me; 
thirdly, I have nothing to do with other people's 
opinion about my piety. My business is between my 
own secret soul and the Searcher of hearts, and I am 
required — and through grace it shall be my aim — to 



OP PROF. GEOPGE BUSH. 41 

come out and be separate, and have my conversation 
in heaven, and mind the things that are above. 

June 26. — Have recently had some severe trials of 
mind, which I think have resulted in giving me more 
stability in trusting on Christ. The tossing surges 
seem to heave me upon the rock. Oh, let me be ever 
humble, meek, teachable ! I am a miserable novice ; let 
it be my continual prayer that Jesus would instruct 
me still further in the knowledge of himself and his 
salvation. 

July 13. — Prostrated again. I have been so wofully 
remiss in looking at my spiritual concerns during a 
week or two past, that I scarce know where I am. 
There is no safety, I am persuaded, in being content 
with the mere stated performance of devotional duties, 
however punctual we may be in them. There must 
be an intention of mind constantly, a living upon the 
stretch, a perpetual cherishing of holy desires, or the 
lively impressions of divine things will subside, and 
ere we are aware we are in darkness. 

25. — Have had a little reviving in my bondage. 
Shortly after penning my last mem. the pleasant light 
of the Lord's countenance seemed to shine in upon 
me. It might have been delusion, but I think I can 
perceive that of late my seasons of enjoyment are 
more satisfactory in point of genuineness — that they 
savor more of the Gospel and less of the flesh. I 
think I love holiness, and should be happy in a holy 
heaven and no other. But I am sadly defective in 
respect to self-denial and exercising control over my 
thoughts. There is an inefficiency about me of which 
I am ashamed, and which is totally unworthy of one 
called by the holy calling of the Gospel. Another 
thing is peculiar in my character ; I am not natural. 
My mind has but little plain, unaffected, natural sense. 
My thoughts, my style of writing, and all my conver- 
sation and extempore exercises, are tinctured with a 
certain prim, starch manner, which is very remote from 
the easy simplicity of the true Gospel of Christ. And 
4* 



42 MEMOIKS AND REMINISCENCES 

it makes people stare too, which revolts my sensibility. 
This whole thing, however, is rather an infirmity than 
a sin, but I wish and will try to have it cured. 

Aug. 17. — If God in his unbounded mercy deigns to 
hear my petitions, the way he takes to answer them is 
wonderful. My soul is disquieted within me, and my 
judgment seems to be passed over from my God. He 
makes me to possess the sins of my youth in a manner 
that overcomes me with fear. Is this in kindness or in 
wrath ? Must it not be his wrath when I find no per- 
ceptible yielding to the righteous will of my Sovereign 
— when my heart seems to be even disaffected with the 
humbling terms of the Gospel, and is not all moved 
by the matchless love of the Lord, the Savior. If I 
could but see the true evil of sin in itself, and thus re- 
pent of it, my soul would not be so devoid of hope. 
Has that awful scene of guilt (1819) so well registered 
in memory and recollected with remorse every day, lost 
for me the favor of God, and sealed my state forever ? 
O, most merciful God ! here I am in my iniquity and 
weakness. Cast a kind eye upon me and let me live 
for thy name's sake, taking all the glory to thyself for- 
ever more. Amen. 

18. — Thanks to the mercy of God, my peace seems 
to be somewhat restored. The principle source of my 
distress yesterday was that I could not perceive that I 
had any complacency in God, any sorrow for sin, any 
hatred of it, or any faith in Christ. Indeed my greatest 
burthen was that my heart liked not the way of salva- 
tion by the merits of another, that there was a secret 
but active disaffection with the humbling terms of the 
Gospel. My pain of mind led me to very earnest prayer 
and weeping before the mercy-seat. By degrees the 
clouds seemed to break away, and a humble trust in 
Christ to spring up. I think I was made to be sorry 
for my base sentiments in regard to the precious salva- 
tion of this wonderful Saviour. At present, my mind 
is in a comfortable frame, and I can pray sincerely. I 
think that the Gospel mode of mercy may have its due 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 43 

influence upon my native pride and bring it all to the 
dust. 

24. — Evening. — With emotions of unfeigned hu- 
mility and with due jealousy over my evil heart of 
unbelief, I would gratefully record to the praise of 
Sovereign Grace what I conceive to be a remarkable 
manifestation of my Saviour's peace to my soul this 
day. In the morning I was depressed, gloomy, and 
wellnigh upon despair. I could get hold of nothing, 
so to speak, but hell. I was conscious to myself of 
having precisely that frame of spirit which required 
nothing but the deposition of my body to be converted 
into the character of the lost. In this deplorable, awful 
state, I cried earnestly for mercy. Still darkness re- 
mained, and in that state I went to church, occasion- 
ally lifting up my soul in inward prayer for mercy. 
But I was dull during all the exercises. After returning 
to my room, I again poured out my prayers at the 
throne of grace. And one thing was peculiarly notice- 
able in this state. My impression was that nothing 
but a direct signal display of the glorious character of 
God could remove my burden and darkness. But, oh, 
how unsearchable are his ways ! My soul was sweetly 
commanded into peace, and yet it was not by that 
overbearing glory that I anticipated, if I was to behold 
any thing, but by powerfully inclining my heart to be- 
lieve in the precious truth He had spoken of His 
Son, and His Son of Himself. I had before had hard 
thoughts of Christ. I thought I did not, could not love 
him, because his gospel was so humbling to my self- 
sufficiency, and my silly notion was that God must 
first reveal himself and thus subdue my pride, and then 
I should embrace Jesus of course. But it was not so. 
Christ was prominently presented to my soul, and my 
affections were engaged in a manner that words cannot 
tell. Oh, that there were a heart in me to bless this 
inestimable Jesus according to his dues at my hand ! 
To think that he should deign to look with pity on 
such a wretch, and grant me such a precious relief, and 



44 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

at the very time when every thing foul and devilish was 
rankling within me, oh, 'tis adorable! But God will 
honor his Gospel, and exalt his Son. Let him do it — 
even so — Amen. " He restoreth my soul : he leadeth 
me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." 
And this is the only account that can be given of it by 
men or angels. 

Dec. 12. — Communion Sabbath. — More than usual- 
ly, an interesting time. Considerable fervor in prayer 
before the services. During the actual participation 
in the sacrament, my mind seemed to be kept in" a 
steadiness of serene contemplation which I know not I 
ever enjoyed before on such an occasion. I really think 
it did please the good Lord in infinite mercy to afford 
somewhat of an acceptable disposition to dedicate my- 
self wholly to Christ. Indeed such were my views of 
the surpassing love and grace of this precious Saviour, 
that He seemed rather to devote himself to me than I 
to him. There was no impression of doing- him a ser- 
vice, but it appeared an unspeakable mercy to be al- 
lowed to cast myself as a poor beggar at his feet. 

Jan. 1, 1822. — Another year gone by! * * * 
In the duty of bringing the body into subjection and 
inuring myself to all kinds of self-denial, I am sen- 
sible of heinous omissions. I am far too liable to 
indulge my appetites to a wrong degree, and especially 
those "lusts of the mind" which, under a more inno- 
cent guise, do as truly war against the life of grace 
as any animal propensity that besets our nature — I 
mean a carnal thirst for all kinds of knowledge — an 
extensive critical acquaintance with the Scriptures — a 
vain predilection for certain qualities of style, etc., in 
my own writing and others. All which are continually 
misleading me with the idea of their utility. I hope 
this charm will be broken. I begin to be awake to a 
sense of my bondage, for which 1 would be thankful. 

Jan. 12. — Alas ! how little I know of the true Chris- 
tian's life. I had no idea, I find, till of late, that the 
way to heaven was so much up-hill. But even now 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 45 

it is rather with me a conviction that such is the fact, 
than an actual conscious climbing 1he steep. My dif- 
ficulty is that I have so little spirit for the struggle. 

Jane 12. — What an untiring intensity of spirit re- 
quired to keep the conscience free of accusations and 
the soul at peace in a humble nearness to God ! 
How easily are we blinded as to what it is to walk 
humbly with God! — I find that my systematic 
studies in theology have a wonderful deadening in- 
fluence on my feelings. In studying the origin and 
nature of sin, and speculating upon the thousand 
points of difficulty connected with the subject, I seem 
to lose all affecting sense of the true character of this 
evil, and forget that I am a sinner, and as such exposed 
to its curse, unless the free grace of Christ interpose. 

Aug. 25. — For several days past have been favored 
with considerable of a relish of divine things. The 
particular department of theology on which I have 
been engaged, the person of Christ, has been a source 
of peculiar sweetness to me. I find my comfort 
generally rise in proportion to the clearness of my 
notions of doctrinal truth. I am becoming more and 
more convinced that every duty performed with sin- 
cerity and humility meets a present reward. God 
forgets no labor of love. Let a man once get into the 
spirit of duty, and he will find it to be well with him, 
if not at the time, yet afterwards. And I think I have 
sometimes felt one prayer to draw a blessing of a 
week long after it. 

Oct. 30. — After a good deal of deliberation I have 
at length concluded to accept an appointment lately 
made known to me, and spend a year as tutor of New 
Jersey College. The reasons which have principally 
led me to take the office, are, 1. The present state of 
the College. It has no President. The faculty are 
most of them young. The students are many of them 
wild and thoughtless young men, and the station 
seems to claim my services if consistent with other 
duties. 2. I am in great need of the compensation, 



46 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

which is liberal, and will raise me out of my present 
dependence (with which, however, I am not discon- 
tented) and probably afford me considerable facilities 
for going out into the world, if that is the course 
Providence designs for me. If not, 3. I shall be in a 
situation where I shall probably enjoy eminent advan- 
tages to fit myself for a studious life. At any rate 
the revival of a considerable portion of my classical 
knowledge will be of no disservice to me. Especially 
as, 4. I am now pretty far advanced in my theo- 
logical pursuits, and the interruption can be better 
afforded than at an earlier stage. On the whole, I 
think that without any serious detriment to my main 
object, I can undertake this business, and be licensed 
and go forth into the church as soon as I otherwise 
should, and that, too, under many advantages of a 
pecuniary kind. 

Nov. 30. — Heard a sermon from Mr. L to-day, 

with which I was grieved more than edified. How 
utterly vain are all mere moral suasions and ethical 
essays towards converting a soul, full of sin, to God ! 
The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation. In- 
deed, I should be much surer of producing morality, 
supposing I expected nothing more, by preaching 
Christ, than by holding up pictures of vice or virtue 
either. Vice and virtue are not words with which the 
minister of Christ has much to do. Sin and holiness 
are his terms. 

Dec. 30. — I find myself led away far from the cross 
by my excessive thirst for knowledge. I have been 
enabled to see that the true knowledge of Jesus Christ 
embraces within itself about all that is absolutely 
necessary, yet there is a morbid insatiable longing 
after an acquaintance with men r s thoughts, that really 
amounts to little value, cleaving to corrupt nature. I 
am much impeded by it in my spiritual walk, and it 
moreover defiles my conscience ; for I believe there is 
as much sin in gratifying this propensity to an undue 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 47 

The mischief, however, is that the intrinsic dignity 
and the adventitious use of learning blinds us to the 
sin of seeking it. I am seriously thinking of making 
an entire revolution in my habits in this respect, 
through grace, without which I shall effect nothing. I 
pray God to direct me both what to acquire and what 
to pass by. 

Feb. 9. — My whole life I find to be a continued 
argument of my depravity — of the deep, the awful 
hold which sin has taken of my heart. The daily 
tenor of my walk, alas ! is carnal, tending earthwards, 
or more properly, hellwards. And I know it all the 
while. I can see that the love of Christ does not rule 
in my soul, as it should, and from time to time I have 
some half-relentings, and feeble vows to do better. 
But the wound is not probed to the bottom ; my 
resolutions are made in my own strength, and it 
requires but a day to hurl me back again to my 
utmost distance from God. I do not know how to 
reconcile this with the Scripture account of true grace. 
I do not find this in the lives of the sacred worthies. 
Not but that they were beset with sins, and many 
times worsted in the conflict. But then theirs was a 
conflict. In my case it appears a perpetual succurn- 
bency. No vigorous yet humble efforts to get deeply 
versed in the true nature and workings of sin, and 
throw off its horrid dominion. This cannot be right. 
And though sin has blinded me so that I see it not, 
there must be a vileness, a rottenness, a guilt about a 
heart that lives not by grace drawn from Jesus, which 
would cause my knees to shake were it disclosed. 
Yet, when under some sense of all this I set about 
the work of repentance and earnest prayer, I am so 
easily diverted from my purpose, or so prematurely 
lay hold of peace soon to be relinquished, that it ap- 
pears to be laboring in the fire, and leaves me con- 
tinually beginning, thus answering to the description 
in the Scriptures, of those who were ever learning and 
never coming to the knowledge of the truth. How 
will it end ? how will it end ? 



48 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

March 9. — I am at a great loss in what light to 
view myself. I am not void of hope ; I am not 
peculiarly cast down ; religion in its many bearings 
has much hold upon my thoughts, but I have yet very 
little positive feeling on the subject. I find not a 
strong current of affection bearing me on towards 
Christ and the things of his kingdom. I am fully 
aware that lively or dull frames are an inadequate test 
of our true character, which is ascertained mainly by 
the settled aim and practice of the life, but there 
appears still to be a degree of actual joyous emotion 
necessary in order to the proper and profitable dis- 
charge of duty ; at least that prevailing peace and 
calm of the soul which arises from a good conscience. 
Here is my main defect. My state of piety- is not 
commensurate with my knowledge, and thus a slight 
deficiency brings disquiet to the conscience. My right 
principles go not out in act. I am too much of a 
passive receiver of truth, even practical truth, omitting 
those vigorous deeds of self-denial and duty which are 
needful in order to bring my grace (if I have any) up 
to my knowledge. I am sensible of having overlooked 
the vast importance of symmetry and proportion in 
the growth of Christian tempers. 

June 12, 1823. — My birthday. Twenty-eight years 
elapsed ; about six since I hope the Spirit of God 
arrested my heart effectually. In that time my attain- 
ments in spirituals are extremely small, although I 
have been in the way of acquiring considerable specu- 
lative knowledge. 

Since this day twelvemonth, I scarce know how to 
estimate the time. In experience I seem to myself to 
have acquired more clear and enlarged views of the 
Gospel, but to have had less joyous feeling than at 
other times. I am sensible of seeing deeper into Chris- 
tianity as a practical system, and am less led away by 
popular notions and errors in deportment than formerly, 
but that my own example has conformed to my views, 
I dare not say. My principal defect is in sliglitness. 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 49 

The work does not plough up my soul as it ought. 
Self-denial, the chief mark of a Christian, is but weak 
in me. 

Jane 28. — Set apart this day for especial fasting 
and prayer, as my state for some time past has been 
thriftless and languishing. The season has on the 
whole been profitable, though owing probably some- 
what to exhaustion, I have not much impression on 
my mind at present. But I have learned, I think, on 
former occasions, that the good effects of such seasons 
have not sensibly appeared till afterwards, when it was 
evident that they resulted in giving more fixedness to 
the heart, and in settling the whole soul upon God. I 
have this day been led to think that my prayers have 
not sufficiently abounded in confession — the hint was 
received from reading attentively the remarkable prayer 
in Nehem. c. 9. 

July 27. — For some time past, the Lord my Saviour 
has held a lamentably low place in my thoughts and 
love. Whether it be from the recoiling of guilt, or 
from remiss thoughts, or from confining my reading 
principally to the Old Testament, in some way or 
other he has seemed to die away from my affectionate 
regards, and consequently my soul has been barren. 
Alas ! how backward am I to effort and activity in my 
spiritual business ! If I have any besetting sin it is 
spiritual sloth. I do not stir up myself to take hold 
on God. It seems that I am afraid of losing the time 
that is spent in devotion, especially when I am not 
favored with much liberty of petition. Judgment and 
experience tell me that at such times I ought to esteem 
every thing else as nothing, till I am brought to a right 
and pious frame, I am quite sure, as poor and miser- 
able as my prayers have ever been, that I never have 
lost any thing by the time spent in the duty. I have 
never prospered the less. Let this be improved. 

September- 6. — A good and profitable day. Fasted 
wholly, from evening to evening, and was frequent and 
fervent in prayer. I w^as enabled, in some degree, to 
5 



50 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

plead for spiritual blessings, not merely on the ground 
of my great need, but because God had promised them, 
and engaged himself long before I was born, to grant 
me with Christ all needed blessings. It is sweet thus 
to get. hold of the covenant. It infuses a wonderful 
energy into prayer to plead the eternal love and pur- 
pose of the Father. The view of my ministerial work 
in prospect afforded matter for much earnest entreaty, 
and I trust I was enabled to devolve all this burden on 
the Lord — to leave it to him to qualify me for his 
own work — to appoint for me my field of labor, and 
then to act his sovereign pleasure in granting or with- 
holding visible success. To him also I left it to choose 
for me a sharer and companion in my toil, if he saw 
good that I should form such a connection. This is a 
prayer that like most others I must still pray; that my 
guiding God would take this election out of my rash 
hands, and prevent me from reaping the bitter fruits of 
my precipitancy. 

March 13. — Have this day fulfilled my purpose in 
regard to fasting and prayer. Fasted from evening to 
evening, and was much in prayer. On the whole have 
great reason to be thankful for the day. It reminded 
me more of comfortable days past than any thing I 
have experienced this long time. Such seasons are 
certainly of vast benefit to the work of grace in the 
soul. If I rightly judge of my own exercises, I have 
'jeen enabled this day to repent of sin with sorrow un- 
feigned, and yet not so to sorrow as those that have no 
hope. I was powerfully led to believe, in looking back 
over my past life and experience, that I could see the 
marks and proofs of divine love to my soul. Notwith- 
standing sins of the blackest dye and most frequent 
occurrence, notwithstanding leanness, unprofitableness, 
pcrverseness and guilt of conscience, yet mclhought I 
could discern the clear indication that a series of 
spiritual favors had run through the whole tract of 
years past, affording a comfortable evidence {hat I had 
known somewhat of the " <rood of his chosen and the 



OP PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 51 

gladness of his nation." Blessed be God, that I am 
not wholly without hope! However the truth may be 
as to the past, yet I think I have been enabled to exer- 
cise faith upon a sent, sealed, and sanctified Saviour. 
Some of his words of free salvation have been precious 
to me this day. And I may say, that I have generally 
found that true peace and joy have been brought into 
my heart as the result of faith, or a believing look 
towards Him who is " the confidence of the ends of 
the earth." The drift of my petitions has been that 
I might be favored with a steady, cheerful hope, not 
merely for the sake of enjoyment, but of active obedi- 
ence, for darkness of mind unmans me as to diligence 
and exertion — that the good work, if it be indeed com- 
menced, may be carried on in all its parts with power 
— that' I may be enabled to control every inordinate 
affection, both of body and mind — that I may have a 
watchful, jealous eye over my heart — that I may be 
made truly useful in my ministry — that I may be 
guided as to the circumstances of my outward lot — 
that I may be fitted for death, and for sharing a part 
in the inconceivable blessedness and glory of heaven. 
On the whole, I venture to think from my past and 
present feelings this day, that God has graciously re- 
ceived my prayer, and that every thing I have sought 
agreeable to his will shall be granted sooner or later. 
And now for duty — now for active, faithful, unwearied 
obedience in his service. The Lord bless me ! 

18 — Went this day unsolicited to witness a scene 
but too commonly witnessed by the ministers of the 
Gospel — a poor dying man, just on the brink of eternity, 
and to human view but little prepared for death ! The 
scene was most inexpressibly solemn. '• I have lived," 
says he, " a sinner all my days, and I have no expecta- 
tion of getting well, and if God does not forgive my 
sins at this time, I am gone, I am gone ! " While I was 
engaged in prayer at his side, he burst out into the 
most earnest cries for mercy, clapping his hands like 
one praying in an agony. Nothing 



52 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

a more impressive sense of the divine justice, than to 
witness the importunate entreaties of a trembling mor- 
tal just on the verge of the grave, and then to reflect 
that unless that individual is an object of God's elect- 
ing goodness, his most passionate cries, his agonizing 
anxiety, are all utterly unavailing ! 

19. — Preached this morning on the Apostle's words — 
" We walk by faith, and not by sight" — in which it 
was my object to show how this divine principle exalted 
a man above all visible objects, and the common prin- 
ciples of human conduct. A fixed attention appeared 
in the audience, but my conclusion, a very common 
thing in my discourses, was extremely lame and meagre. 
I must endeavor to lay out more strength in my appli- 
cations. 

21. — Completed this day the book of Numbers, in 
Hebrew, having reached that point in a regular course 
of reading the Old Testament in the original. Yester- 
day wrote eight or ten pages of a treatise in which 
I am engaged on the Presbyterian form of Church 
Government. 

April 17. — Returned to-day from Eagle Creek, 
where I spent the Sabbath. Preached yesterday at 
Mr. Burns', to a tolerable audience, and to-day at Mr. 
Henry Jacksons', to a still smaller. Gave great offence 
in my sermon to an old lady, a Universalist, by my 
pointed reprobation of the doctrine which she holds. 
She had hitherto been friendly, but this day's sermon 
threw her into a storm of passion. I afterwards 
called at the house, and had some talk with her. 

19. — Preached this day a funeral discourse occa- 
sioned by the death of Mr. John Conner, a respectable 
and leading citizen of this part of the country. He 
died this morning, and according to his own request 
was buried in Masonic honors, a circumstance which 
would certainly seem to imply that his last thoughts 
were occupied upon trifling matters, if such an idle 
parade could interest him sufficiently to lead him 1o 
make the request. Surely he could have thought but 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 53 

little of his immortal soul, if such a vain pageantry 
attending the mournful procession could have pleased 
his imagination. And I am sorry to say that other 
circumstances were but too much of a piece with this. 
May 3. — Commenced this day a new kind of life — 
viz: that of head of a family. After remaining six or 
eight months at board since our marriage, Mrs. Bush 
and myself have begun housekeeping. It is certainly 
a change that very sensibly reminds us of our need of 
the divine blessing, that we may be enabled to order 
our household in the fear of God. We hope that we 
do regard it in this light, and that we shall endeavor so 
to demean ourselves that we may experience of the 
divine declaration, that the blessing of the Lord dwell- 
eth in the habitation of the righteous. 

Visit to Plymouth, Mass., July 2±th, 1827. 

My feelings on arriving in sight of this memorable 
place cannot be described. To think that I was per- 
mitted to traverse the very ground where the pious 
Fathers of New England, the ever-venerated Pilgrims, 
first pitched the Lord's tabernacle in this country, and 
where they laid the foundations of the best ordered 
society that the world now or perhaps ever saw, filled 
me with unutterable emotions. The local aspect and 
the natural site of the town are not very interesting. 
It is situated in a very broken, hilly, rocky position, 
although the water prospect is charming. After call- 
ing upon Brother Freeman, we walked down to the 
memorable rock on which the pious Pilgrims first set 
foot, when they landed. Upon this I had the gratifi- 
cation of planting for a moment my own foot. The 
rock originally would have weighed, perhaps, five or 
six tons. It has, however, within a few years, been 
divided, and a part of it removed to the centre of the 
town, and placed in front of the Old Church, where 
the Fathers once worshipped, but which has now, alas! 
fallen into the hands of Unitarians. The remainder 



54 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

of the rock remains in its native seat, upon a level 
with the adjacent earth, and from its being at present 
fifteen or twenty rods from the water, a wharf having 
been built out some distance from the rock, a stranger 
would be unable to find it without assistance. Indeed, 
it is in the midst of a street, with stores on each side 
of it. My associations were peculiar in standing on 
this rock, from the fact that I now reside a thousand 
miles to the west of this memorable spot, and in a 
country utterly unknown to the early settlers, where in 
the space of two centuries from the period of their 
landing, a nation of millions has sprung up. On my 
standing on that hallowed rock, the extremes of the 
Union seemed to meet. I could not but bless God 
that in the course of his Providence he had permitted 
my eyes to behold this most interesting place, so dear 
to the recollections of all that love their country and 
love Zion. A sentiment which was not a little height- 
ened when I visited the ancient cemetery, and walked 
amidst the moss-covered tombstones of those venerated 
saints. If I ever felt that the memory of the just was 
blessed, it was at this moment. God grant that the 
virtues and remembrances of these sainted men may 
be cherished and perpetuated to the latest ages ! 



A REVIEW OF THE PRINCIPAL POSITIONS, 

Clerical and Theological, with Some Remarks upon the Personal Character 
of Professor George Bash, after lie became a New Churchman. By 
Asa Wortiiington, a very intimate- friend, and for several years a 
member of his church in Brooklyn, N. Y. 

[We have hesitated somewhat as to the insertion of this 
article as it is, for two reasons; first, the length of it, and 
•second, the introduction of so much of the old controversy on 
the subject of the Priesthood. We have been obliged to cut 
it, even now, but we can shorten it no more without cutting 
out nearly a whole division of the subject, and changing the 
character of it essentially. We are aware that there may be 
prejudices with some, and fault-finding by others ; but after 
considering the matter fully, and consulting other minds than 
our own, we conclude to insert it, for several weighty reasons. 
First, it is well made out, and will be read with great interest 
by many. Second, the questionable subject introduced here 
so fully, is one that bore very heavily upon the mind of the 
worthy Professor in the latter years of his life, and engrossed 
a large share of his attention. He considered it radical 
and vital. We mean the ominous subject of " Priesthood 
and Clergy unknown to Christianity." An order of distinct 
clerical function in the church, (not teaching function, which 
the Professor always admitted) separate from the laity, and 
instituted and consecrated by peculiar rites, he regarded aj 
the " very bane of the church, and the chief enginery of the 
pit against its true interests." And he wrote against it with all 
his learning and might. Such being the nature of the subject 
then, as it lay in his mind, it assumed an importance which 
demands for it a full representation in a fair and just biog- 
raphy. Third, from the very full and candid presentation 
of it as here given, and the introduction of an able opponent in 
the controversy, the reader may see both sides of the subject ; 
and whatever of error there may be in it may thus find fair 
chance for open exposure, or whatever of truth for confir- 



56 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

mation and settlement. With this view of it, we commend the 
whole subject to the earnest attention of the reader. En.] 

But few men, perhaps, who have occupied promi- 
nent positions in society, and who have had occasion 
to declare and frequently to publish their views and 
opinions to the world, have been so generally mis- 
understood and misrepresented as the subject of this 
memoir : and yet all who knew him, or have read his 
somewhat voluminous writings, testify to his simplic- 
ity of heart, his frank and manly avowal of his senti- 
ments, and to the uniform candor and fairness in which 
he received and considered opposing opinions. This 
will appear anomalous and strange to those who do 
not understand well the organism or structure of the 
human mind. The great architect of the mind has 
wisely and mercifully ordained that its receptive organ 
shall close when truths are presented which it is not 
prepared to receive and entertain. The heart must 
first be won, so that truth will meet with kind recep- 
tion. To reject truth as error, simply hardens the 
heart, which may yet, perhaps, be softened and sub- 
dued; but to entertain it and afterwards reject and 
deny it, corrupts the heart and endangers its regenera- 
tion. Hence the mind is not permitted to see or re- 
ceive truths which the heart is unwilling or unprepared 
to entertain. 

The truths which our friend embraced in the latter 
portion of his life, and which it was his great desire to 
teach and set forth, are of a character so startling, 
involving scriptural doctrines so essentially differing 
from the orthodox creeds of the day, that but few 
minds are yet able to receive them. The nature of 
these truths will be more fully seen by the extracts 
which we shall make from his writings. 

Among the chief of them is that concerning the 
second advent of our Lord. This great event he be- 
lieved had actually taken place, and that the reason of 
opposition to such belief arises from our having mis- 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 57 



He believed, too, that a new dispensation and a new 
church — the " New Jerusalem" spoken of in the reve- 
lations through John, has already descended, and is 
now being built up on the earth; — that the Divine 
Word contains an interior or spiritual sense, designed 
for the instruction of regenerated and more spiritual 
minds, and unfolding more clearly the true import of 
the literal or natural sense, which is more especially 
adapted to the external state of man. 

The unfolding of this interior sense is claimed to be 
what is meant by the Lord's coming " in clouds and 
with great glory." He being the truth and the Word, 
would again appear in a marvellous manner in that 
very Word, — its letter being understood by clouds, 
and its spirit by the glory that would attend the un- 
folding of its interior truth. 

And may it not be so ? Fanciful and visionary as 
it may seem to minds that have never given a thought 
to the subject, or have ever dwelt in the popular belief 
that the Lord's coming is to be an outward and visible 
appearing to the natural man, there is yet, we think, 
much in this view to interest and to command the 
attention of more spiritual and intellectual Christians. 

Prof. Bush, in short, became fully imbued with all 
the doctrines promulgated by Emanuel Swedenborg, as 
professedly educed from this sense of the word. The 
espousal and advocacy of these views, lost our friend 
the confidence and respect of most of his admirers, and 
forfeited to him the high position he occupied in theo- 
logical ranks and literary circles. But with what jus- 
tice, or under what rule of Christian charity and rever- 
ence for truth, we leave the reader to determine. 

The mind that is satisfied to take things on hearsay 
without investigation must ever be superficial. It can 
feel none of that confidence and satisfaction which 
result from a faith based on its own observation and 
close scrutiny. And yet the strange anomaly here, 
that while the scrutinizing and instructed mind is 



58 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

never self-confident or doggedly certain of its position, 
the superficial mind, on the contrary, cannot be easily 
driven from first conclusions. 

The mind of Prof. Bush was peculiarly organized. 
It was very susceptible, easily impressed, but not 
readily satisfied. He would listen with child-like sim- 
plicity to whatever was told him, and if not too glar- 
ingly absurd, seem to acquiesce in its truth ; but those 
who knew him well and saw him often would soon 
discover that he had, notwithstanding, his own opinion 
upon the subject, drawn from deeper thought, though 
always modest and diffident in expressing it. 

It seemed to be his nature and his soul's desire to 
penetrate to the bottom of whatever appeared to him 
worthy of investigation ; and aided in this by a strong 
and comprehensive mind and an indefatigable spirit of 
perseverance, he became a scholar of great attainments, 
and enjoyed for a time the confidence and esteem of 
his learned contemporaries. But, alas! his mind could 
not rest while he saw new fields for investigation, and 
new light beaming upon his opening vision. He under- 
took the investigation of Emanuel Swedenborg's al- 
ledged claim to supernatural illumination and intro- 
mission into the spiritual world, and he soon became 
a convert to his doctrines. This brought him into con- 
flict with his former Christian brethren, who believed 
Swedenborg to have been an impostor or a demented 
visionary. 

A spirited and somewhat extended controversy sprung 
up between them, but our friend's position seemed to 
be so impregnable, and his arguments so powerful and 
unanswerable, that after a time, opposition to his views, 
or rather, public controversy with him, ceased. 

It has been claimed in some quarters, that in his 
latter days his faith in the New Church doctrines had 
given way ; and that he was endeavoring to work back 
into his former position. The only ground for this 
rumor that we can trace, is the fact that a short time 
before his death, being somewhat straitened in his 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSET. 59 

means by the limited sale of his New Church writings, 
he attempted a continuation of his Notes, Critical and 
Practical, on Numbers, — a work prosecuted with great 
success before he had adopted the New Church doc- 
trines, — and knowing, if he introduced any of his New 
Church views into the work, it would defeat its sale, 
he gave it the same character it bore in former days. 

He consulted with us (the writer) on the expediency 
and propriety of this step before he entered upon the 
work. He had doubts whether it was right for him to 
do so — right to give a less lucid commentary upon the 
Word than he had the ability to do by adopting the 
New Church rule of interpretation ; but it was con- 
cluded that even the old method was a help to the 
understanding, and therefore better than nothing, while 
if the new rule was applied, prejudice would be so 
strong against the work that it would not be read, and 
both objects — the one to gain his bread and the other 
to aid the seeker after light — would be thereby de- 
feated. 

It may be considered, possibly, that this is hiding the 
light under a bushel, and therefore wrong. But we have 
before seen that the mind may be injured by light which 
it is not prepared to receive ; and let us do what we 
will, the Lord will regulate this light as He tempers 
the wind to the shorn lamb. 

Whoever has enjoyed the confidence of our friend 
will have little concern on the score of this rumor. 
Although, as we have seen, our friend could change 
his mind, and was ever ready to give up error for the 
embrace of truth, if it appealed to his reason, he was 
yet, to the day of his death, resting under a stronger 
faith in his New Church views than in any position he 
had ever before taken. 

The Professor was an uncompromising opponent of 
the New Church convention, claiming too greatly the 
prerogative of the Mother Church, and to dispense rules 
and regulations to associate churches. This conven- 



60 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

ministers in the New Church, by one of their own ap- 
pointing. The Professor never submitted himself to 
this ceremony, believing it to be formal and unneces- 
sary, and denying their right to enforce it. This led, 
in the course of his ministerial duties, to some dis- 
sension and schisms in his congregation which he 
greatly regretted, and caused him to doubt whether it 
was not his duty to yield up what he conceived to be a 
non-essential point for the sake of harmony, and sub- 
mit to new baptism ; and we have no doubt it was his 
determination to do so, had he lived to re-assume his 
duties in the church. This, together with the fact that 
near the closing scene of life, he requested his wife to 
place her hands upon his head and repeat the baptis- 
mal formula, has given rise to another report which we 
think is alike unfounded, namely, that he had given up 
his hostility to the New Church convention. 

We know the strong conviction he entertained that 
this convention and all similar hierarchies were evil 
excrescences upon the church, unwarranted and unsanc- 
tioned by any of its doctrines — a hamper to its ad- 
vancement and uses, and an abridgment of its freedom ; 
and we believe he died as he had lived, in this opinion. 

His views of the priestly office differed essentially 
from the established order, and gave rise to much ani- 
madversion and opposition from his clerical brethren 
generally, though we think they were in some respects 
misunderstood. He had thought deeply upon this sub- 
ject for several years, and had written and published 
from time to time in the New Church periodicals, 
several articles expressive of these views, when about 
a year before his death, or in 1S57, a friend submitted 
to him a manuscript intended for publication, asking 
his revision and correction of it. He found in this so 
much in accordance with the convictions of his own 
mind upon the subject of clerical order, that he was 
induced to further examination of the early practice in 
the church, or in the apostolic era, and the scriptural 
doctrines sustaining it ; and the result was that he pub- 



OP PROP. GEORGE BUSH. Gl 

lished the book himself, giving it the title of " Priest- 
hood and Clergy unknown to Christianity ; or, the 
Church a Community of Co-equal Brethren." He as- 
sumed as author, the fictitious name of " Compam- 
nator." This was a bold and startling announcement, 
and the work was criticised with great severity. 

The subject is of such vital importance for good or for 
evil to the church, and so clearly shows the thorough- 
ness with which he examined all matters that engaged 
his attention, that we are induced for the reader's better 
understanding of its main drift, to give rather copious 
extracts from the work itself, as well as from the criti- 
cisms that have been passed upon it, and the author's 
reply thereto. 

In his address to the reader, he says — 

"Let us have a fair understanding with each other in the 
outset. 

" ' Priesthood and Clergy unknown to Christianity ' does not 
imply the denial of a divine Priesthood in Christ, nor of a 
Spiritual Priesthood as pertaining to all his true people. This 
we admit, of course. Our object is in fact to deny the existence 
of any other Priesthood, in a just view of the Christian econ- 
omy. We go against all Priesthood and Clergy visibly and 
externally embodied in a distinct class or caste. Our scope 
' hath this extent ; no more.' " 

In the first chapter of the work the author endeavors 
to show the prevailing misapprehension in regard to the 
term " church, " in its true and proper sense, — the 
heresy of sectarianism and the causes which led to the 
present order of church government, and the "grand 
fallacy" as he termed it, that was imposed upon the 
church by this departure from the rules and practices 
of its early institutions. He says — 

" The term ' Church' does indeed occur in the Scriptures, as 
in human discourse, in a generic or universal sense, as embrac- 
ing the totality of single churches or Christian societies, but not 
as implying the organised embodiment of those societies into 
one grand ecclesiastical whole. The true idea to be attached 
6 



62 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

to ' Church,' in this its more general or extended sense, is that 
of the simple aggregate of the primary societies or churches of 
which it i- composed. Church, in the specific sense of a single 
congregation of believers, meeting together in one place, and 
united in a covenant relation with each for spiritual ends, is the 
predominant usage. Such churches were formed by the apos- 
tles in the early days of Christianity, and to such the apostolic 
epistles were, for the most part, addressed. They were sever- 
ally independent of each other as to regime and responsibility, 
though from community of object, and from the operation of 
brotherly love, they were of course intimately connected by 
spiritual bonds, and might perhaps better be denominated inter- 
pendent than independent. The Holy Spirit, in Xew Testament 
diction, addresses them and speaks of them as churches estab- 
lished in various places and composed of members walking 
together in 'professed subjection' to the Gospel, and observ- 
ing the ordinances which the Divine Head of the Church has 
appointed. To such bodies allusion is had when the sacred 
writer speaks, for instance, of the ' churches of Macedonia,' 
the ' churches of Galatia,' the ' churches of Judea,' etc. The 
churches founded in a particular province are spoken of in the 
plural, and not in the singular. Still it is unquestionable that 
the singular or generic term is used in the sense above indicated. 
Thus it is said of Christ that he was ' made head over all 
things to his church.' ' Husbands, love your wives, even as 
Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it.' ' In the 
house of God, which is the church of God.' And so elsewhere. 
The original word ekk/.tigio., eccksia, uniformly denotes in Scrip- 
ture either a single society of believers, or the church uni- 
versal. As to any sense intermediate between these, equivalent 
to the usage that obtains among Christians when they speak of 
the Papal Church, of the Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian 
Church, the Baptist Church, etc., it is utterly unknown to the 
usus loquendi of Holy "Writ." 

In the Historical Development of Synodical or Sec- 
tarian Christianity, he quotes Mosheim in his commen- 
tary on the affairs of Christianity before Constantine, 
(Vol. 1, p. 329) thus: — 

" Although, therefore, all the churches had, at the com- 
mencement of this (the second) century, various laws and in- 



OF TROF. GEOKGE BUSH. 63 

stifutions in common, which had been received from the apos- 
tles themselves, and were particularly careful in maintaining 
with each other a certain community of tenets, morals, and 
charity ; yet each individual church which had a bishop and 
presbyters of its own, assumed to itself the form and rights of 
a little distinct republic or commonwealth ; and with regard to 
its internal concerns, was wholly regulated by a code of laws, 
that, if they did not originate with, had, at least, received the 
sanction of the people constituting such church. This primi- 
tive liberty and independence, however, was by degrees relin- 
quished, and it became a practice for all the minor churches 
within a province to form themselves into one large association, 
and to hold at stated seasons, much after the manner of con- 
federate republics, a convention in which the common interests 
and welfare of the whole were taken into consideration and 
provided for. Of the immediate authoi's of this arrangement 
we are uninformed, but it is certain that it had its origin in 
Greece ; and there are many things which combine to prove 
that during this century it did not extend itself beyond the 
confines of Asia. In process of time, however, the very great 
advantages attending on a federation of this sort becoming ap- 
parent, other provinces were induced to follow the example of 
Greece, and by degrees this form of government became gen- 
eral throughout the whole church ; so that the Christian com- 
munity may be said, thenceforward, to have resembled one 
large commonwealth, made up, like those of Holland and 
Switzerland, of many minor republics. These conventions or 
assemblies, in which the delegates from various associated 
churches consulted on what was requisite to be done for the 
common welfare of the whole, were termed Synods by the 
Greeks, and by the Latins Councils. To the laws enacted by 
these deputies under the powers with which they were invested 
by their respective churches, the Greeks gave the name of 
canons or general rules, and by this title it also became usual 
for them to be distinguished by the Latins." 

" Here we have very distinctly set before us the genesis of 
the ecclesiastical hierarchy which at an early day established 
itself in the church. The historian remarks, in a subsequent 
section, that although this conventional or synodical policy 
was attended with certain benefits and advantages, yet it was 
nevertheless ' productive of so great an alteration in the gen- 
eral state of the church, as nearly to effect the entire subver- 
sion of its ancient constitution.' It took from the primary 



64 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

bodies the discussion and adjustment of any but the most petty 
and trifling concerns, as the general body assumed the prerog- 
ative of regulating and determining every thing of importance. 
In the next place, it went to augment the dignity and authority 
of the clergy, who soon became to assert themselves as the 
legitimate successors of the apostles and as charged with an 
oversight of the individual churches. Add to this, that it 
tended directly to break in upon and destroy that absolute and 
perfect equality which had reigned among the teachers of the 
Christian flocks in the primitive times. ' For as it was neces- 
sary that some certain place should be fixed on for the seat of 
council, and that the right of convening the assembly, and pre- 
siding therein as moderator as well as of collecting the suf- 
frages and preserving the records of its acts, should be vested 
in some one or other of its members, it for the most part be- 
came customary to give a preference in these respects to the 
chief city of the province and its bishop, and hence, in process 
of time, sprung up the dignity and authority of ' metropolitans,' 
a title conferred by way of distinction on the bishops of princi- 
pal cities. These associations of churches, situated within one 
and the same province, soon gave rise to the practice of many 
different provinces associating together ; and hence a still 
greater disparity by degrees introduced itself amongst the 
bishops. In fine, this custom of holding councils becoming at 
length universally prevalent, the major part of the church 
assumed the form of a large civil commonwealth, made up of 
numerous inferior republics ; to the preservation of which 
order of things, it being found expedient that a chief or super- 
intending prelate should be appointed for each of the three 
grand divisions of the earth, and that, in addition to this, a 
supreme power should be lodged in the hands of some one 
individual bishop ; it was tacitly assented to, that a certain 
degree of ecclesiastical pre-eminence should be recognized as 
belonging to the bishops of Antioch, Rome, and Alexandria, 
the principal cities in Asia, Europe, and Africa, and that the 
bishop of Rome, the noblest and most opulent city in the world, 
should, moreover, take the precedence amongst these principal 
bishops, or, as they were afterwards styled, patriarchs, and 
also assume the primacy of the whole Christian church through- 
out the world." (Vol. I. p. 335.) 

" This reveals the spiritual pedigree of the Pope. He was 
gradually generated as the result of the previous process of 
associating churches into synods, and thence of consolidating 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 65 

synods into larger or ecumenical assemblies. The next and 
the natural step was to crown the whole structure with a pon- 
tifical apex. A pope's tiara will be the inevitable sharpened 
point of the towering pyramid of ecclesiastical power, when 
once the independence of single churches is merged in the 
plausive but pernicious unity of a Presbytery, Synod, Confer- 
ence, Convention, or General Assembly." 

Speaking of the Church in the aggregate, he says, 
p. 15 : " This aggregate is said to be visible solely be- 
cause the primary elements — the single societies — of 
which it is constituted are visible. It is not visible as 
an organized embodiment, because such an embodi- 
ment is not supposed to exist, inasmuch as it is not 
conformed to genuine divine order. For the same 
reason we can see how it is that the position, that the 
Scriptures contain no special system of government of 
the Church as a whole, is well founded. It is because 
there is no such thing contemplated in the divine econ- 
omy as an external church that shall be the subject of 
such a governmenV 

In the 2nd Chap., he enters into the definition of 
"Priesthood" — traces the origin of the order in the 
Levitical institutions to a representative type of Christ, 
and shows that this type was superseded on the com- 
ing of Christ, by himself then assuming to be the only 
High Priest of his church. He denies in very emphatic 
terms that either the Scriptures of the New Testament 
or the practice of the apostolic era, contain any war- 
rant for the clerical order which has supervened upon 
the Papal and Protestant churches of the present day. 

" As the great labor of the son of perdition has been to de- 
stroy the priesthood of grace, and exalt the priesthood of the flesh, 
and as this his w r ork of wicked witchcraft has too successfully 
transformed the unity of the believing body into the cloven foot 
of 'clergy and laity,' so should it now be the unremitting labor 
of the servants of the Lord to undo his work; to go back again 
to the fountain of original purity, and there, in a thorough 
cleansing of holiness, to recover the fair image of primeval 
simplicity, which may induce the bridegroom once more lo say 
6* 



66 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

to his spouse, ' though art all fair, my love, there is no spot in 
thee: P. 18. 

" Now, in order to recover the privileges of which the church 
is lawful inheritrix, through the New Testament of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ, our duty is to place the gospel 
ministry in a clear light ; to bring it forth in open day ; and 
not to allow it any false effect by shadowy backgrounds, and 
the picturesque accompaniments of antiquity." P. 20. 

" To deny all distinction between clergy and laity, prohibits, 
in limine, the advance of any other papal argument ; neither 
Pope nor Prelate can plant his feet where this is boldly held 
forth ; it meets him with confutation and expulsion at the door 
of the sanctuary; and, by referring to the sole priesthood of the 
divine Head of the Church — who assumes into union with him- 
self all his people, and places them ' with boldness and confi- 
dence, ' in ' the holiest of all,' as ' priests to God and their 
father,' — renders it impossible for any 'clergyman' to intrude 
into the folds of Christ and to usurp functions which his brethren, 
anointed with the Holy Ghost, may not perform with an authen- 
ticity and validity fully equal to any that he can claim. 

" But it is marvellous to see how this important truth of the 
gospel has been neglected, and how Christians have, in almost 
all Protestant denominations, set themselves to the work of con- 
solidating such a form of church government as should reduce 
the priesthood of the whole body to a naked theory, and make 
that a mere idea, abstracted from anything practical or tangible, 
which was intended to be a governing principle of the church 
upon earth." P. 22. 

"We plead for the abrogation of that law, or, which amounts 
to the same thing, of that fixed custom which commits the whole 
task of doctrine to a consecrated, to a clerical order, which has 
abolished the mutual exhortations of the church, and substituted, 
in lieu thereof, the laborious orations of scholastic rhetoricians. 
"We plead for the plenary recognition of the church-privileges 
of all the people of God ; that they may, if so disposed, preach 
the word (Acts viii. 4) ; that a saving faith in Christ may be 
admitted as proof of that anointing, which institutes into the 
evangelical priesthood — for no one can say that Jesus is his 
Lord but by the Holy Spirit — and that the rule of the Apostle 
may be revived and tolerated, ' We, having the same spirit of 
faith, according as it is written, I have believed and therefore 
have I spoken, we also believe and therefore speak.' " P. 23. 

He asks — '-What are the Advantages of the Present System? 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 67 

What benefits result from the pertinacious adherence to the 
clerical distinction ? We may waive the nice question of the 
Priest; but that the clergy and the laity are perfectly distinct 
amongst the Congregationalists is notorious, and it is quite evi- 
dent that the laborious education for the ministry, the titular 
rank of the minister, the call, the ordination, the imposition of 
hands, the garb, the sole office of instruction, the indelible char- 
acter, and divers other particularities, constitute the ministers 
Clergymen ; and that ' the people,' as all non-clerical believers 
are called, are entirely separate in character and action from 
the clergy. Has this system prospered ? Is it, generally speak- 
ing, in healthy vigor and activity ? Or is it, in the greater 
number of instances, debile and failing? And is it betraying 
signs of evident caducity?" P. 31. 

In the 4th chap., treating of the " ministry," he says : " The 
setting aside of any other priesthood in the Christian church 
than that of our Lord himself still leaves the institution of a 
ministry untouched, and our inquiry now concerns that subject. 
What then is the general and popular idea of ' ministry,' and 
what is the divine teaching concerning it ? With the multitude 
it is a wide, undefined term, meaning an office just as undefined, 
held by one who is termed a priest, clergyman, minister, or 
preacher. With the uninstructed, ' priesthood ' and ' ministry ' 
are the same thing. Whoever will take trouble to institute the 
inquiry, will find that the popular idea of ' ministry ' is like the 
popular idea of ' church ' — all dimness and confusion. A 
notion prevails that whatever is said about priests and Levites 
in the Old Testament, and about bishops and ministers in the 
New, is to be applied to the Christian ministry : that a minister 
is a priest, and a priest a minister ; that the person holding this 
office is in some way to be ordained to it by other priests or 
ministers ; that by virtue of his office he is to preach and pray 
for the people, to visit the poor and the sick, to look after the 
salvation of men's souls, and more or less to secure it ; that he 
is to be more pious than ' the laity ;' to wear official apparel ; 
to be called ' Reverend,' and generally to manage every thing 
that belongs to ' religion.' " P. 42. 

After aiming to show the true idea of " Ministry," as 
set forth in the scriptures, by giving copious and perti- 
nent quotations from Paul and other writers, he re- 
marks : — 



68 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

" Here then is a formidable array of Scripture authority to 
establish the truths for which we plead : but what is tbe usual 
reply to so much and such serious evidence ? Generally, an 
exclamation of amazement that we can propound any thing so 
strange as that there is ' no ministry, and no ordination to min- 
istry in the New Testament !' It behoves us therefore to be 
still more explicit, that we may show both what Scripture does 
and does not teach on the subject — that we may prove our 
point both negatively and positively. Here, then, let it be re- 
membered, tbat Ave are not to be deceived by the use of words 
diverted from their proper meaning, and conveying with them 
the ideas of tradition and not of tbe Scriptures ; for there is 
'ministry' in the New Testament, and abundantly set forth too 
there, far more abundantly than we are, for the most part, pre- 
pared to receive ; but it has no reference to tbe idea of ministry 
handed down to us by tradition : it is therefore important again 
to state the traditional, before we further make manifest the 
scriptural idea. The ministry of professing Christendom, then, 
has a reference to a body of men set apart by the sacerdotal 
ceremony from the body of believers, and ordained into an office 
in which they have exclusive right to preach, teach, feed, and 
tend the flock, and ' administer the sacraments.' We have then 
further to inquire if the ministry of scripture answers to this 
traditionary representation of it. 

"Explication of Scriptural Terms relative to Ministry. — In 
the New Testament, ' ministry,' except when predicated of 
Christ himself, Rom. xv. 8, Matt. xx. 28, Heb. viii. G, is used 
to denote any service of the saints to God and to his Church, 
though in our English translation the meaning of the term is 
occasionally weakened or perverted. The English word ■ min- 
istry' occurs in the New Testament eighteen times, in all 
which instances, except two, it is a translation of the Greek 
word diatcovia, diakonia. In the following passages ministry is 
given as the translation of leirovpyia, leitouryia, otherwise ren- 
dered service: — 'But now hath he obtained a more excellent 
ministry (leitourgia), by how much also he is the mediator of 
a better covenant.' (Heb. viii. G. 'Moreover, he sprinkled 
likewise with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of 
the ministry (leitourgia).' (ix. 21.) These two instances are 
the only exceptions. There are, however, several instances in 
which diaxovia, diakonia, is translated by some other word than 
' ministry ; ' and this fact may at once enable us to understand 
how much confusion of thought may be introduced by a capri- 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 0U 

cious translation, influenced by clerical notions. But in order 
to present the whole subject in its clearest light it will doubtless 
be expedient to array before the reader the entire list of pas- 
sages where the original terms for to minister, ministry, &c, 
occur in the New Testament, as the actual usage will evince 
that nearly all the advantage gained by the clerical theory is 
due to a subtle process of technicalizing terms which were 
intended to bear no other than their ordinary import. This 
process has been somewhat largely applied by ecclesiastical 
and other dignitaries in the interpretation of holy writ, but in 
no case perhaps more glaringly than in regard to the words 
which we are now about to consider. 

" The verb dLaicoveo, diakoneo, to serve, to minister, occurs 
thirty-seven times, in twenty-three of which it is rendered by 
minister, in ten by serve, in two by administer, and in two by 
using the office of a deacon. 

Matt. iv. 11. 'Angels came and ministered unto (diekonoun) 
him.' 

Matt. viii. 15. ' She arose and ministered unto (diekonei) 
them.' 

Matt. xx. 28. ' Even as the Son of Man came not to be minis- 
tered unto (diakonethenai), but to minister (diakonesai), and 
give his life/ &c. So also Mark x. 45. 

Matt. xxv. 44. ' When saw Ave thee in prison and did not min- 
ister unto (diekonesamen) thee ? ' 

Matt, xxvii. 55. ' And many women were there, which fol- 
lowed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto (diakonousai) 
him.' 

Mark i. 13. ' And the angels ministered unto (diekonoun) 
him.' 

Mark i. 31. 'The fever left her and she ministered unto (dieko- 
nei) them.' Luke iv. 39. 

Mark xv. 41. ' Who also followed him and ministered unto 
(diekonoun) him.' " 

This may serve to show the manner in which he has 
proceeded through some eight or ten pages of like quo- 
tations, interspersed with illustrative notes and refer- 



70 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

ences, to explain the scriptural terras relating to minis- 
try, diakoneo, diakonia, diakonos, &c. 

He sums up the investigation in the following man- 
ner : — 

" In view of the ample array of passages now adduced, is not 
the conclusion fair and unimpeachable that ' minister ' never, in 
one single instance in the Neio Testament, means a clerical func- 
tionary ; that ' ministry ' has the meaniny of service in every in- 
stance where it is expressive of the actions of Christians ; and 
that it frequently refers to the service of all the saints to one 
another. This is our firm and unshaken conviction, and con- 
sequently Ave hold that the entire clerical system which has so 
long obtained in the Christian church has been, as we have 
before remarked, the result of a process of technicalizinrj the 
import of certain terms which were designed to be taken in 
their more native, ordinary, or every day sense. It is easy to see 
how the operation of certain inbred principles in our fallen 
nature should have led, by the aid of pliant translations, lo the 
conversion, for instance, of the original word for servant into 
that of minister as implying ecclesiastical rule, and of the simple 
word overseer to that, of bishop, and so of a multitude of others, 
that have been made the groundwork of a pernicious system 
of hierarchy." P. 6G. 

On " the office of deacon " he remarks that the word 
duLKovog, (diakonos) appears in the English Bible as 
" minister," " servant," or " deacon," as it suited the 
object of the translators to render it. 

" Let it be remembered," he says, " that the transla- 
tors had a double task to perform, not only to give an 
English version of the Scriptures, but so to manage 
that version as not to disturb the ecclesiastical order of 
their own communion. That this necessary caution 
was part of their task, we know by historical record ; 
for King James expressly commanded them not to 
change ' the old ecclesiastical words :' 

" Diakonos, dianovos, a word employed thirty times in the New 
Testament, has never once in the original the technical and 
official meaning of either a deacon or a minister. The diakonos 
of the New Testament is a person who in any way is serving 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 71 

God, when the word is used in reference to the Church of God : 
in two instances it is applied to express an ordinary domestic 
servant. ' His mother said unto the servants — the servants 
which drew the water.' (John ii. 5, 9.) In Rom. xiii. 4, the 
rider or magistrate is called ' a servant of God to the church 
for good.' 

" The passages now adduced will be sufficient to show that the 
diakonos of the Greek text is a word generally expressive of 
service, and that to translate it deacon or minister in one passage, 
whilst in another it is rendered servant, is not to represent the 
true meaning of the original, but rather the ecclesiastical pre- 
judices of the translator. And, in fact, the word 'deacon,' 
and ' the office of deacon,' though making a conspicuous figure 
in the English Bible, have no existence in the original." P. G7. 

Ministry, as implied in the term v-7]psTr]g, huperetes. — " ' Min- 
istry,' however, makes its appearance in the English Bible 
through the medium of another word, which must not be over- 
looked. That word is virrjpiTTjg, huperetees, and in four instances 
it is so translated as to carry with it a clerical meaning, when 
the Scriptures are. studied under the influence of traditionary 
prejudices. TnrjpETTic, huperetees, is, in its primary meaning, an 
under-rower, one who sat in the rower's bench of the ancient 
trireme-vessels, under the command of a superior officer; but 
in its secondary sense it is any inferior officer, chiefly of the 
civil courts, the apparitor, sergeant, or constable ; also any ser- 
vant, official or domestic, state-servants or house-servants ; and 
lastly, any one who renders service in any matter or duty." 
P. 74. 

Imposition of Hands, p. 75. — " We have now then only to 
examine the last strong-hold of clerical prejudice, the imposi- 
tion of hands, a subject which to many persons is a mystery, 
containing in it the whole order of the clergy and all its accom- 
paniments : so great indeed is the influence of this ceremony 
on the minds of many, that they consider the whole question 
of the sacerdotal order clearly established by a simple reference 
to the instances of imposition of hands recorded in the New 
Testament; and it must be confessed that the Papists, the 
Episcopalians, the Presbyterians, the Independents, and the 
Wesleyans, are in wonderful accord on this subject ; imposi- 
tion of hands creating a clerical order, they all discover in the 
Scriptures ; only they cannot agree amongst themselves who 
are the true clergy, and in which of the sects the ceremony is 
most accurately performed. 



72 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

" Bat granting that there is any truth in that which lias been 
already argued, then it must be obvious that the ' ministry ' of 
the New Testament differs so widely from any existing ministe- 
rial order, that we need not be very solicitous, after the preced- 
ing exhibition, to inquire about 'a regular ministry, ordained 
by imposition of hands ; ' for unless the advocates of the cleri- 
cal order can succeed in setting aside these statements from 
the New Testament, then is their system virtually undermined. 
But let us, nevertheless, for argument's sake, waive any preced- 
ing proofs, and very briefly examine the popular notions of ' an 
ordained ministry.' Now, according to popular notions, the 
regular minister has been ordained ' to preach the Gospel, and 
administer the sacraments,' by virtue of imposition of hands 
of a clerical body already existing. Let us advert to both 
these points in detail." 

Administering the Sacraments. — "1st. As to 'administer- 
ing the sacraments,' the term is wholly unknown in scripture. 
There are no ' sacraments ' in the New Testament : it is only 
from the papal school that we hear of them. The churches of 
Rome and England talk much of ' the sacraments ; ' and the 
dissenters, copying those churches, or rather retaining the prac- 
tices which they received originally from Rome through the 
church of England, enlarge on the mysterious theme; but the 
Christian who is guided by the Scriptures need not trouble him- 
self about any theological language which he cannot find in the 
word of God. As for baptism, which they call one of the 
sacraments, there is no scripture proof that it was performed 
by any ' minister,' taking the word even in the wide sense of 
diokonos — the baptism of the converts in the house of Corne- 
lius was not performed by any ' minister,' for as far as we are 
informed, the only ' minister ' present was Peter, and ' he com- 
manded them to be baptized' (Acts. x. 48) ; that is, he did not 
baptize them himself; and though doubtless the traditional 
school would assure us that ' the certain brethren from Joppa' 
who accompanied Peter (verse 23) were clergymen, and ' ad- 
ministered the sacrament of baptism' on that occasion, yet no 
such statement appears in Scripture ; and therefore it may be 
dismissed with innumerable other dreams of the school. Neither 
is there any evidence that the presence of a minister, or an 
elder, or a bishop, was considered indispensable in- those meet- 
ings of the saints when on the first day of the week they 
assembled to break bread. Paul gives many directions to the 
Corinthians concerning those meetings; but he never once 



OP PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 73 

names or even alludes to any elder, bishop, or ordained minis- 
ter, as likely to be present on those occasions. If there were 
elders in the church of Corinth, they would of course break 
bread with the rest, but so little did Paul know about ' ordained 
ministers administering the sacrament' that he neither names 
the minister nor the sacrament; and how this omission can he 
accounted for, if in those days there were either 'ordained min- 
isters' or sacraments, we see not. Let those who can, explain 
this difficulty." P. 77. 

Preaching the Gospel. — " Then, secondly, as to 'preaching 
the Gospel,' no such faculty was conveyed by any imposition of 
hands or any ordination ; for if that had been the case, then of 
course no other door to preaching the Gospel could have been 
opened, as the simultaneous existence of ordained and unor- 
dained preachers would have made it appear that ordination, 
for preaching the Gospel at least, was a ceremony that might 
be dispensed with. Now to the existence of unordained preach- 
ers we have a direct testimony : ' Saul made havoc of the 
church, entering into every house, and haling men and women, 
committed them to prison, therefore they that were scattered 
abroad went every where preaching the word.' (Acts. viii. 4.) 
Was this an irregular and uncanonical proceeding ? Of course 
all clergymen are bound to declare that it was, because these 
preachers had not received ' holy orders.' 

Ordination, p. 80. — " The case of Apollos (Acts, xviii. 24), 
is exactly to the point. ' He was an eloquent man, and mighty 
in the Scriptures, .... instructed in the way of the Lord ; 
and being fervent in spirit, he spake and taught diligently the 
things of the Lord.' This was his ordination, ' I have believed, 
and therefore have I spoken; 'and this is the only ordinal ion 
that a Christian, instructed from the Word, is called upon to 
own — the ordination of faith granted by the Holy Spirit. 
' We having the same spirit of faith according as it is written, 
I believed, and therefore have I spoken ; we also believe, and 
therefore speak.'" (2 Cor. iv. 13.) 

* * * u The word ' ordain ' is the rendering of the verb 
Kidiorrifu, kathistemi, meaning ' to appoint/ ' to make,' ' to con- 
stitute.' In the following instances it is so translated: 
Matt. xxv. 21. ' I will mafa (katc(s,teso) thee ruler over many 

tilings.' 
Luke xii. 14, < Who made (katestese) me a judge or a divider 

over you,' 
Rom. v. 19. 'As by one man's disobedience many were made 
7 



74 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

{katestathe&an) sinners, so by the obedience of one many shall 

be made {katastathesontai) righteous.' 
Acts. vi. 3. ' Look out seven men .... whom we may appoint 

(Jcatastesomen) over this business.' " P. 82. 

" Having, then, thus unravelled some of the perplexities of 
this question, it may be instructive to see the ill use which 
clergymen have made of the Scriptures in order to perpetuate 
a delusion which they themselves cannot believe. ' When our 
Lord,' says Bishop Beveridge, ' had died and risen from the 
grave, anil when he was about to ascend into heaven, he pro- 
moted his apostles into the episcopacy, that he might leave be- 
hind him the conservators of his own place.' The first form 
of this episcopal consecration is recorded in John xxi. 21, 22 : 
where Jesus says to his apostles who were all collected to- 
gether — " Peace be unto you : as my Father has sent me, even 
so send I you ; and when he had said this, he breathed on them, 
and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost." I confess 
that our Lord had before this ordained his apostles, but only to 
preach the Gospel, and to confirm it with miracles. (Mark. iii. 
13, 14 ; Matt. x. 1.) But now for the first time after his res- 
urrection, he says, " As the Father has sent me, so send I you." 
From which it most clearly appears, that by this second and 
last ordination, celebrated as it were by many ceremonies, the 
apostles were advanced to a higher grade than they enjoyed 
before, or rather (as far as relates to the faculty of ordaining 
and exercising ecclesiastical discipline), to that very grade into 
which Christ himself had been consecrated by the Father. 
By the virtue of their first ordination, therefore, the apostles 
preached the Gospel ; but by this last consecration they were 
made bishops, and so, supplying upon earth the place of their 
absent Lord, they did themselves create other bishops.' 

" But mark the fatal error of this strange passage! for the 
prelate, in his anxiety to establish ceremonies of consecration 
and worldly mitres, has forgotten or concealed the fact that, on 
the occasion recorded in John xx. 21, 22, and on which he 
builds his whole theory, Thomas, one of the apostles, was absent ; 
for it follows immediately — 'but Thomas, one of the twelve, 
was not with them when Jesus came.' So that, according to 
this interpretation of the prelate, ' the apostolical college ' would 
be deficient in the mystery of consecration ; and Thomas, a 
favorite apostle with the Episcopalians, would receive no 'fac- 
ulty of ordaining and exercising discipline,' and consequently 
must have lost his station ; as a conservator of the place of 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 75 

Christ,' to the no small detriment of ' the apostolical succes- 
sion,' and all its fabled benefits and prerogatives. 

" A word further as to the imposition of hands ; take the fol- 
lowing instance, which is much urged by clergymen : 'Now there 
were in the church at Antioch certain prophets and teachers . . 
and as they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Ghost 
said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto 
I have called them; and when they had fasted and prayed, 
and laid their hands on (hem, they sent them away.' (Acts 
xiii.) Here then, if this instance is of any avail, it ought to be 
shown that Paid and Barnabas had never preached the Gospel 
before ; that they never had been sent forth before to the 
ministry or service of the Lord; and that on this occasion they 
for the first time received license ' to preach the Gospel, and 
administer the sacraments.' We find, however, an account of 
Paul's preaching (Acts ix. 20), some long time, not less than 
seven years, before this event : nay, both Paul and Barnabas 
had been preaching in Antioch a whole year, and had been 
sent by the disciples of that city to Jerusalem, with a collection 
made for the brethren at Judrea (xi. 30), so that their ministry 
not only elsewhere, but remarkably in this very Antioch, had 
been for a long time tolerated without imposition of hands. 
Again, if this was indeed an 'ordination' of Paul, we find the 
teachers and prophets ordaining an apostle! — a fact that 
would sadly derange the theory of the apostolical succession, 
which declares that our Lord alone ordained the apostles, and 
the apostles ordained the clergy. Moreover, it would reverse 
the order of precedence formally stated in Scripture, ' God 
hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, 
thirdly teachers' (1 Cor)." P. 88. 

***** 

" The train of remark thus far pursued should be considered 
but as introductory to a still more important view of the subject 
— a view nearly forgotten or unknown in these days — viz., 
that ' ministry,' when rightly understood, is not merely or 
mainly for propagating Christianity by preaching, not merely 
for government, or securing discipline, or keeping the people 
in subjection, but for preserving in vigorous healthfulness the 
spiritual body to which it appertains. The evidence of its 
accomplishing this end is to be sought and recognized in I he 
degree in which it is promotive of the love of the brethren. Yes, 
Christian reader, understand this truth : that God's ministry is 
appointed by his most wise ordinance — not according to man's 



7G MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

thoughts, to produce a well-drilled regiment under effectual 
clerical management, which is the utmost extent of excellence 
that most people ever look to when arguing for an 'ordained 
ministry ' — but it is intended as a help to the New Command- . 
ment, by which the world is to distinguish Christ s disciples. 
{John xiii. 34.) In all the passages where Gods ministry is 
mentioned in the New Testament this is made apparent; for 
the mind of the Spirit concerning the ministry which he raises 
up is, that it is the nursery of that love without which a visible 
-'n'irch is an inoperative and lifeless thing, a machine out ot 
>rder, and therefore useless." P. 03. " 

Tendency of Clerical Rule, p. 104. — "In one word, then, 
the difference is wide between ecclesiastical and spiritual rule ; 
for not only is every known form of ecclesiastical government 
the result of a false principle, and a standing evidence ot uni- 
versal apostacy, but the whole tendency of clerical rule is to 
disturb the communion of saints, or rather to render it impos- 
sible Hence it is, that in all our standard theology, always ot 
course of clerical origin, we shall in vain look for the com- 
munion of saints. Doctrinal Christianity itself is continually 
bein- misrepresented by our most spiritual writers, owing to 
the influence of the prevalent notions of ' ministry. As the 
love of the brethren cannot germinate where the clergy are 
distinguished officially from the laity, and as indeed this love 
has owin- to this long-established distinction, been altogether 
forgotten and abandoned, so do we find that all writers, even 
the° very best, teach experimental Christianity as a private 
personal matter, apart from union with ' the one body of 
Christ. Many precious volumes have been published to estab- 
lish what are called the fundamental doctrines of Christianity ; 
but when established the application of them is invariably 
made to isolated individuals; and all the remarks, all the elo- 
quence, all the affections of the teachers, tend to this one point 
— the necessity of our working out our own salvation and ot 
sustaining our faith in private communion with God. Hie 
clory of the living temple, which, in Scripture, refers exclu- 
sively to the collective body of all the saints, is thus neglected 
and omitted, and one-half of the New Testament becomes a 
sealed hook, which theologians are unable to open, and winch 
remains in consequence shut up to themselves and their unsus- 
pecting disciples. The first epistle of John, for instance, is tar 
out of the reach of all the pulpits and professors chans. It 
never has been, nor ever can be, explained by any cerrjjmuu, 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 77 

so as to display the genuine meaning of the inspired writer. 
Other portions of the word which treat of justification by faith, 
or any of the cardinal points of the schools, are well argued so 
long as the text speaks only of those points ; but when the 
word leads on to the ministry and the communion of saints, 
the expositors' chariot-wheels drag heavily, and all becomes 
confusion, misconstruction, and dogmatical error. ' If we walk 
in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with 
another,' is an unknown doctrine in professing Christendom ; 
for it refers not to philanthropy, nor to courtesy, nor to gen- 
eral benevolence, nor to alms-giving charily, nor to sympathetic 
beneficence, nor to love of our sect, or of those who belong to 
that sect, nor to attachment to a choice preacher, but to some- 
thing else which sects and clergymen have never seen nor 
heard, nor even imagined in a happy dream." 

Evil Effects of the Distinction in question, p. 1 22. — " The 
undoubted tendency of the actual arrangement, is to beget, in- 
activity amongst the people when they feel that they have a 
spiritual delegate in whose hands arc placed those large and 
responsible duties which are supposed to attach to the ministe- 
rial office. Many there are who can thus find a ready excuse 
for their own lack of zeal ; they think their pastor carries the 
keys of the church, and to him, therefore, they consign their 
spiritual energies, as if he were a general proxy lor all the 
people in their works of faith and labors of love. What multi- 
tudes of church members might be numbered who take no 
personal interest in the operations of the church ! How many 
are there who content themselves with the external acts of 
worship and a formal attendance on ordinances, leaving all the 
rest to the minister, or to any one that chooses to undertake 
that which they will not touch with one of their little fingers ! 
But with these notions there are other evils also ; for to this 
source may be traced frequent discontent amongst the mem- 
bers, and bitter sorrow to many a worthy and laborious pastor. 
Great and numerous are the duties expected of a minister, 
and large are the ideas entertained of the limits of his office ; 
and yet, if he does not fill up the complement of all the impos- 
sible toil imposed upon him, he too often falls into discredit 
with his people, for not doing that which cannot be done. 

" The study and preparation expected for the pulpit ; the 
pastoral visits ; the attention to the particular spiritual cases of 
individuals; the schools; the prayer meetings; the church- 
meetings ; the public meetings, and all the rest of the compli- 



78 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

catecl machinery of operative religion, impose «i weight and 
multiplicity of cares on the shoulders of some pastors, which 
none but Atlantean shoulders could sustain ; and yet if the 
'minister neglects any part of these enormous duties, which a 
mistaken theory has apportioned to him, he is in jeopardy of 
forfeiting the esteem of some of his flock, as he too often dis- 
covers, to his no small discomfort and sorrow. To use a curi- 
ous expression of a deep thinker, ' he is a system and not a 
man ;' circumstances have given him a character which rightly 
belongs to a society and not to an individual; but neither he 
nor the church understands the difficulty of the case, the hid- 
den cause of the difficulty, nor its only possible remedy. The 
theory of the parish priest perplexes the views and confuses 
the judgments both of pastor and people, and as each party 
argues on an erroneous axiom, it is no wonder that the deduc- 
tion of each should be faulty. The people too often think their 
pastor careless and inattentive ; the pastor not unfrequently 
considers his people unjust and unreasonable. 

" While frankly announcing these sentiments we are perfectly 
aware of the light in which they will be viewed by the majority 
of the men of the church. They will look upon it as requiring 
nearly as much hardihood to deny a visible clergy in the 
church, as to deny the existence of the church itself. They 
will feel that a sad havoc is made of all their traditionary and 
cherished associations relative to the church, the ministry, the 
Sabbath, the worship of God, and indeed every thing sacred ; 
and they will be prompted to put the question, whether we 
really mean quite so much as our words would seem to import. 
Assuredly we do ; and we will thank any man to designate 
the point at which we can consistently stop short of our present 
position provided our premises are sound. If there is no ex- 
ternal priesthood known in the Lord's church, what authority 
is there for a clergy ? We find it not, and therefore state our 
conclusions without reserve. No hesitation have we in saying 
that in the truest and purest state of the church on earth, no 
other than a spiritual priesthood or clergy will be known, and 
what that is has been sufficiently unfolded in our previous 
remarks. It is a priesthood and a clergy which exists in an 
utter non-recognition of the distinction between them and the 
laity. These classes, as contra-distinguished from each other, 
are wholly unknown to a just ideal of the church. 

" That a multitude of questions should be started as to the 
sequences of such a theory as we have now announced we cu:i 



OF PIJOF. GEORGE BUSH. 79 

readily anticipate. "Who shall propagate the doctrines of the 
ohurch ? Wlio shall conduct worship, and how shall it he 
done? What will he the use of churches in such a state of 
things ? Or, if we have them, what will he the use of a pulpit 
if there he no regularly inducted clergyman to fill it ? That 
in all these respects the adoption of our views would work 
momentous changes in the existing order of things there is no 
shadow of doubt. But of sudden changes we are no advocates. 
We have too correct a conception of the genius of the Lord's 
church to think of urging abrupt and violent innovations for 
which the states of men are not prepared. We know very 
well that at the present moment they are not prepared to fore- 
go a system to which they have long been habituated, and 
therefore we do not urge it. We would have changes intro- 
duced neither further nor faster than the firm and intelligent 
convictions of Christian men shall call for them. But Ave do 
not feel ourselves on this account precluded from broaching 
important principles. We hold that it is never too early to give 
utterance to reformatory ideas. Though not at once acted upon, 
they are still acting as a secret leaven in the minds of men, 
and in due time will bring forth their proper fruits. This 
position, we are persuaded, cannot be logically controverted, 
and yet the man who ventures to act upon it must make up 
his mind to do it at his peril. He will not henceforth be re- 
garded as a perfectly sane or safe man. In his reputation he 
must calculate to pay the penalty always visited upon the dis- 
turbers of old notions. ' The last oifence,' says a French 
author, 'forgiven to men is the introduction of a new idea.' 
We write under the full force of this conviction. The broach- 
ing of such ideas, however, though somewhat startling at the 
outset, is less so upon reflection, and as they become familiar- 
ized to the thought, they assume new aspects, and gradually 
convert themselves to powerful elements of action. The 
Divine Providence has permitted and still tolerates a vicious 
order of things until his people, in the exercise of rationality 
and freedom, shall be prompted to institute a better. Mean- 
while we should have for ourselves no scruples as to compli- 
ance with established forms of worship and instruction, so long 
as we were conscious of inwardly upholding no abstract princi- 
ple at variance with truth. Ministering truth and good to our 
fellow-men is ever a laudable use, and a man in doing it is not 
called upon always to proclaim his conviction that there are 



80 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

things usually connected with the function involving grave 
errors and requiring radical reform. 

" Still, we should deem ourselves signally incompetent to 
the discussion of the present subject, were we not fully aware 
of the very great revolution which the realization of our views 
is calculated to produce in the conduct of spiritual affairs. It 
is impossible for us to be blind to the fact, that the practical 
doing away of the distinction between clergy and laity, would 
put entirely a new face on the services of the Sabbath, and 
present the whole matter of worship in a new light. And 
what then? What if the Sabbath gatherings of Christian 
people should partake more of a social character ? What if 
the principle of mutual instruction and edification should re- 
place the present mode, in which a single individual conducts 
the entire routine ? Is not such a method of instruction more 
accordant with the spirit of the church than that of professional 
preaching ? This form of teaching was more in place at former 
periods, prior to the invention of printing, when books were 
few and expensive, and the mass of people in Christian coun- 
tries could neither read nor write. In such circumstances, 
when intelligence was limited, and the general habits of thought 
and speech not adapted to sustain such a mode of voluntary 
mutual instruction, it would be more natural that one man 
should be employed to officiate in behalf of a whole assembly. 
And so long as that was the case, the clerical caste undoubtedly 
performed an important use. But in the progress of things, 
that state of the general Christian mind has been outgrown, 
and a good degree of general competency to declare truth pre- 
vails. Why then should not those who are ' of age' have the 
privilege of doing their own religious business? We grant 
that such a mode of procedure would be liable to abuses, just 
as ; s every system of polity where the freedom of the individ- 
ual is thoroughly secured. But if good is the predominant 
element in the men of the church, true wisdom will not be 
wanting, and wisdom dwells evermore with prudence. The 
truth, moreover, that is derived from good, is always of a pro- 
lific or self-multiplying character, so that the word will dwell 
richly in all utterance even in the humbler and weaker of the 
brethren, as they are often accounted. The tongue of the 
stammerer shall speak plain, and as there will be few too ig- 
norant to teach, so there will be none too wise to learn. 

" How is it now ? The trained and professional preacher, 
being supported for this very work, has time to devote himself 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 81 

to the careful preparation of his discourses, and lie will be led, 
of course, to elaborate them in finished style, and by degrees to 
conform them to the most admired models of composition, and 
thus to serve up weekly to his audience an intellectual treat 
set off in all the graces of Tullian or Tertullian eloquence. 
The consequence is, that the mind of the hearer, being accus- 
tomed to this kind of pulpit entertainment, comes at length to 
nauseate the plain and homely style of extemporaneous talk 
among brethren. And yet who is not conscious that this kind 
of communication takes a deeper hold of the thoughts and af- 
fections, and exercises more efficient control over the inner 
man, than the most studied oratorical displays to which one 
listens with mere passive acquiescence. 

' The clear discourse, and cold as it is clear, 
Tails soporific on the listless ear.' 

" But a change in this respect, in the conduct of public wor- 
ship, will draw after it a change in the external arrangements 
which the present method has called into requisition. Pulpit 
and priesthood are inseparable ideas ; and pulpit and pews are 
related to each other just as are clergy and laity. It is vain 
to think of abolishing the distinction in the one case and re- 
taining it in the other. The architectural structure of churches 
is but an ultimation of the falsities which we have thus far en- 
deavored to expose. The proverbial sanctity of the pulpit 
must fall before the correction of the errors in which it has 
originated. "When the fancied ' messenger of heaven and leg- 
ate of the skies' has disappeared, why should not his conse- 
crated standing-place vanish with him ? 

" But in these circumstances, can the churches themselves, or 
the worship to which they are dedicated, be permanently re- 
tained? We doubt if they can, Avithout undergoing the most 
signal alterations. The motive which prompts such alterations 
will be the enthronement of charity over faith alone, and charity 
can never breathe but in an atmosphere of use ; and if use be 
the governing principle, it cannot but be a question whether 
the enormous sums expended upon church buildings, as also in 
the way of salaries to their official occupants, could not be ex- 
pended to far greater advantage to the interests of the Lord's 
kingdom in multiplying the issues of the press, and in this way 
propagating the saving truth of heaven. Plain and moderate 
buildings, adapted rather to small than to large audiences, and 
made proportionally numerous, will answer all the demands of 



82 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

those who recognize the church as composed of 'living stones' 
instead of polished dead ones, and who would devote to benefi- 
cence what they can save from extravagance. 

" Whatever, then, goes to make the worship on earth most 
akin to the worship in heaven, ought to be the object aimed 
at by the Lord's people, in conducting their sabbath services. 
For ourselves, we are firmly in the opinion, that the plan of 
mutual instruction, on a perfectly voluntary basis, is far better 
adapted to accomplish this end than the present system, in 
which a single individual is instar omnium, or a kind of spirit- 
ual factotum to the congregation. How vastly more desira- 
ble that each member of a Christian society, according to his 
measure of gifts, should contribute his quota to the general 
fund of instruction and excitation in the spiritual life. Men 
learn more by the exercise of thought, and the putting forth of 
affection in the effort to edify others, than by listening to ser- 
mons when their faculties of use to others are in abeyance. It 
is, moreover, a positive disadvantage that men should have a 
hired functionary to do their thinking for them. The people 
actually need, for their own spiritual health, a great part of the 
intellectual exercise from which their ministers now relieve 
them. Adult Bible and doctrinal classes are now to a great 
extent conducted on this plan, and nothing is more evident 
than their tendency to develop among the mass of members 
all the capacities necessary to sustain the system. So would 
it be in the services of the Sabbath ; and we think it unques- 
tionable that each society of the church has a claim upon the 
powers and resources of all its members. The plea of incom-' 
petency will no doubt be urged in regard to multitudes in the 
church, but with the same propriety it might be urged that 
certain portions of the human body are incompetent to contrib- 
ute any thing towards the perfection of the whole. If there 
be any such part of the bodily structure, it is only fit to be 
sloughed off. But the fact is, the difficulty in the case sup- 
posed arises from the operation of a false standard in regard 
to what is most useful in the way of social impartation. It is 
not the most finished and elaborate discourses which usually do 
the most good. They excite admiration, but they seldom move 
the inner springs of action. They play round the head, but 
they reach not the heart. The plain and even homely utter- 
ances of a good man, accompanied by the sphere which his 
goodness engenders, will commend themselves by a certain 



OF PP.OF. GEORGE BUSH. 83 

unction to every kindred mind, and the absence of literary or 
rhetorical qualities will not be felt. 

"Another fair and very important inference from our prem- 
ises here urges itself upon us. How many infant and feeble 
societies in the church, are kept back and drag along a dying 
kind of life, from an impression of the almost indispensable 
necessity of a minister not only to their well-being but to their 
being at all. There is no occasion, indeed, to be surprised at 
this, for a clergy will be sure to teach, among its first and last 
lessons, the absolute necessity of its own order to the welfare 
of the church, and in this way to lay the spell of inertia upon 
the mass of the laity. How, then, can they find their hands 
when they have been so carefully hid away by their spiritual 
masters ? The effect answers perfectly to the cause, and pre- 
cludes the language of censure towards the private members, 
for they have merely practised upon the copy that has been 
set them. Nor in fact can Ave properly adopt a tone of severe 
reproof towards the copy-masters themselves. They, too, have 
acted according to the light that was in them. They have not 
intended either error or evil ; we therefore view the past with 
all allowance. But it is easy to perceive what the result has 
been, and continues to be. Dependence upon a superior di- 
vinely commissioned order of teachers and leaders, and the fear 
of trenching upon the sanctity of their prerogatives, has tended 
to paralyze exertion on the part of members, and to inure and 
reconcile them to a low state and a slow progress, in spiritual 
things. How is this condition to be remedied? Not by a 
supposed adequate supply of ministerial laborers in the field, 
who shall receive a competent support from the flocks which 
they feed. For years and years to come this is utterly out of 
the question. There are scores of expectant clergymen among 
us at this moment who are ready to enter the vineyard, but 
who can find none who will pay them their wages. Except 
in a comparatively few localities in our country, a competent 
ministerial support is well-nigh hopeless. This, for ourselves, 
we look upon as a pregnant, commentary of the Divine Provi- 
dence upon the truth of our main positions. It indicates to us 
that it is not by a clergy that the church is either to be sus- 
tained or propagated. It must be by every man of the church 
realizing himself to be a church and a clergy in the least form, 
and bound to act as if he were himself charged with the res- 
ponsibility of the priesthood involved in his church character. 
All in a society or a neighborhood, who have the heavenly 



84 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

doctrines at heart, ought to feel it incumbent upon them, both 
jointly and severally, to see that their ' coal be not quenched,' 
and that their lamp go not out. They are each and all to 
supply the minister's lack of service, and everyone who enters 
such a society should do it with a distinct understanding that 
such are the conditions of membership — that a church society 
is a spiritual firm in which there are no silent partners, but 
every one is to be an active working member, always carrying 
with him the conviction that the concern is complete in itself, 
that it must depend entirely upon its own efforts, and that its 
solvency and success can only be secured by every one, with- 
out exception, feeling as if the result depended wholly upon 
him. 

" So in the matter before us ; we see no other method by 
which the little bands of believers scattered over the country 
can ever be prompted to arouse themselves from that torpid 
dead-and-alive condition into which they are so prone to fall, 
than by being weaned from reliance on the ministry, and thrown 
upon their own resources; and how can this be done without 
discarding in toto the very fundamental idea of a clergy or a 
priesthood as a distinct order of men ? A priestly principle 
there must ever be in the church, but that this principle must 
ultimate itself in a separate priestly caste under the Christian 
dispensation is, we are persuaded, one of the first-born of falsi- 
ties which unfortunately has made itself to dominate over some 
of the chiefest truths of the church. 

" That the fruits of this system have not been all evil we of 
course admit, and we have expressly said that we have no 
' railing accusations ' to bring against the parties who have, 
without consciously intending it, fastened a false and pernicious 
system of clerical order on the church. But we feel, at the 
same time, no restraint from pointing to the ' mischiefs manifold ' 
which refer themselves to this source. Among these we have 
barely adverted to one which demands a more definite presen- 
tation. We allude to the everywhere prevalent idea that the 
Lord's church is to be propagated mainly by the agency of 
preaching. This certainly cannot be if our previous position 
is sound, that the very office of the preacher, as ordinarily ap- 
prehended, is a fallacy. Let this position be tried upon its 
merits. ' But how is the gospel of the kingdom to be pro- 
claimed? ' it will be asked. We reply, by means of the press 
and the living voice, not of the minister or the missionary as 
such, but of the ordinary member as such. In the mode now 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 85 

specified, every society or circle of disciples is to regard itself 
as virtually a band of propagandists, whose main business it is, 
in this world, to live and labor for this end. To this every 
thing else is to be subordinate, without at the same time being 
neglected. Worldly resources are needed for spiritual uses, 
and when every thing is viewed in relation to eternal ends, we 
are doing our utmost to superinduce a church-state upon the 
world at large — the grand finale to which the Divine Provi- 
dence is shaping its counsels. Nothing, indeed, is more abhor- 
rent to the true genius of the church than a spirit of indis- 
criminate proselytism ; but there is doubtless a growing recep- 
tivity in the world which prefers a claim to be provided for, 
and this claim will hardly fail to be met if the principles of 
church polity now advocated be thoroughly carried out. Tlie 
fact is, the true church of the Lord is in its own nature self- 
propagating. It diffuses itself by outgrowth or offshoots, like 
trees and vines. There is a spontaneous multiplication of 
societies wherever a true spiritual vitality exists to give the 
start. There is in the essential life of a true church society a 
constant conalus to reproduce itself in similar forms, and if the 
converse of the apostle's aphorism, that ' evil communications 
corrupt good manners,' hold good, to wit, that ' good communi- 
cations purify bad manners,' then Ave may reasonably hope that 
the quiet intercourse of the men of the church, with others, 
their blameless example, their solid, if not imposing intelligence, 
Avill be constantly operating, like a wholesome leaven in the 
general mass of mind till the whole is leavened. The upright 
walk, the sphere of charity, the unwearied study of use — all 
which will be sure to make themselves known and felt — will 
no doubt effect as much in the concentrating of attention upon 
the truths of the church as the discourses and appeals of a 
commissioned clergy, who will always have to contend, more or 
less, with the pi'ejudice founded upon the fact that the preach- 
ing of the gospel is with them a paid calling instead of a gratui- 
tous service. 

" But this noiseless and unobtrusive insemination of good 
and truth, within the range of each one's personal influence, is 
not the sole ground of reliance in the propagation of 'the doc- 
trines and life of the church. The press is the great executive 
ministry of the present age. It is by its instrumentality that 
the furtherance of the Lord's kingdom on the earth is mainly 
to be effected. Here, then, is the channel through which church 
efforts are to be made to tell upon the progress of truth and 
8 



86 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

righteousness. The press we deem a vastly mere efficient 
agency of the church than an ordained clergy; and could the 
large sums annually expended in paying salaries and building 
churches, be laid out in publishing and circulating useful works 
on religious subjects, we arc satisfied that a Car more substantive 
use would be accomplished for the cause, of Zion. And let us 
here say, that while the employment of lay missionaries and 
colporteurs in great numbers and on a large scale may not be 
without its good results, yet, after all, this system of operation 
is apt to serve as a virtual discharge of the mass of members 
from the duty of direct personal effort in this sphere. The 
proper state of things will not be reached till every one who 
prizes the spiritual treasures of the church shall feel himself 
constrained to become a missionary to his neighbor, without 
waiting to have the work done to his hands by a proxy. Why 
should not every churchman feel himself bound, according to 
his ability, to keep on hand a supply of appropriate writings 
with which to furnish, by sale or gift, those whom he may 
regard as proper objects of such a favor ? The apathy which 
has heretofore so widely prevailed on this score, is no doubt re- 
ferable to the same general cause to which we have traced so 
many of the evils that have afflicted the church. The obliga- 
tions of duty have been commuted on the principle of clerical 
substitution, and instead of being sacredly discharged have been 
secularly disbursed. We look, eventually, for an entirely dif- 
ferent procedure in this respect. We can form no idea of a 
truly prosperous state of the church, but one in which the indi- 
vidual shall more and more assert himself — in which individual 
effort and action shall not be so perpetually merged in associa- 
tion. Still we would by no means forego this kind of combined 
ministration to the uses of the church. In the matter of printing 
and publishing they are of immense importance. But our ideal 
of a zealous Christian, is of one who is so intent upon minister- 
ing to the spiritual weal of his fellow-creatures, that just in 
proportion to his worldly means, he will not only purchase and 
distribute the works of the church, but, if needs be, will actu- 
ally, in particular cases, publish and distribute them at his own 
cost, where he is persuaded a great use will be 1 hereby accom- 
plished. At any rate, most cordially will he come forward to 
sustain the labors of those who, as a class, would fain dedicate 
their powers, by means of the pen. to the building up of the 
walls and temples of (he k Jerusalem that i.i from above.' 

" But we arc adaioni.-hed thai we cannot indeiinUely extend 



OP PROF. GEORGE BU3IT. 87 

our thoughts even upon the momentous theme before us. We 
have uttered ourselves upon it with all frankness and freedom, 
and in full view of the consequences. We have been all along 
aware of the ' revolt of mien,' of the estrangement of confidence, 
of the alienated sympathy, which the declaration of such senti- 
ments will not fail to encounter in the minds of many of our 
brethren. That they will at first strike their minds as the 
very extreme of destructive radicalism, is more than probable. 
Nevertheless, we have spoken advisedly ; and however we may 
deprecate the sinister judgment and the sombre auguries of 
those whose good opinion we covet, we are prepared to encoun- 
ter them, if fidelity to truth makes it inevitable. We have only 
to request, that whatever exceptions may be taken to the views 
propounded, they may be taken to the abstract argument itself, 
and not to the practical inferences which we may be supposed 
to draw from it. We can readily perceive how natural would 
be the conclusion, that if an external priesthood in the church 
be a falsity, it ought of course to be regarded as a nonentity, and 
that therefore the whole system should be abandoned instanter, 
as a crying abomination before heaven. We have already 
spoken in pre-arrest of any such sentence as this. We are no 
advocates of sudden changes in the fixed habits and usages of 
the Christian world. We would precipitate nothing before the 
fitting time. The present order of things involves, indeed, a 
multitude of evils, but it has gradually supervened upon the 
order of heaven, and gradually must it be removed. On this 
ground we have no denunciations to utter against the general 
body of those who now sustain the sacred office, and of whom 
it cannot justly be doubted that they have entered it with the 
most upright intentions, and who continue to administer it ac- 
cording to the best light they have respecting its nature and 
ends. 

" But all this does not vacate the force of our reasoning." 

Those who are at all conversant with Prof. Bush's 
style of composition, will not fail to discover — what 
he himself intimates in his address to the reader — that 
all the sentences in this work were not traced by his 
pen. There is a lack, in many passages, of that modest 
deference and conciliatory spirit which so mark and 
distinguish his writings. 

The foregoing extracts from the book, have been se- 



88 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

lected more with the view to show the opinion our 
friend entertained upon the subject of the ministry, 
than to give his arguments or to exhibit the evidence 
he has arrayed in support of his position. We do not 
desire to forestall the judgment of the reader. The 
question involved is too momentous to the interests of 
the church to be hastily determined. An issue is here 
made with the present system of church order and 
government, which demands attention from all who 
have the interest of the church at heart. None will 
deny its importance ; none fail to see its bearing for 
good or for evil. Whatever condemnation may be 
passed upon the author's views, there are but few, we 
think, who despise hypocrisy and concealment, that 
will not be found to applaud the bold and unequivocal 
language in which these views are stated and pro- 
claimed. 

To say the least, it is a bold charge of prevailing error 
in the churches ; and if the language of the Bible has 
been wrested from its obvious meaning — as he al- 
leges — to make it conform to this error, surely it is 
time we should know it. 

The array of evidence he brings to support this charge 
is too formidable to be ignored, and too respectable not 
to claim attention. 

He claims that the fair and honest rendering of 
every passage of scripture that at all refers to the sub- 
ject goes directly and forcibly to sustain the view he 
has taken ; and that this view is also supported by 
the practice of the Apostolic Churches and confirmed 
by Luther, Geiesler, Neander, Milton, McCulloh, Bev- 
erly and others. These passages or texts are all cited 
and spread out before the reader. 

The work in question, soon after its publication, was 
extensively reviewed and severely criticised by " Peram- 
bulator," * which called forth a lengthened reply from 
the author. 

It may be interesting to know how the argument was 

* Rev. B. F. Barrett. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 89 

managed, since both — reviewer and author — reason- 
ing from the same premises, arrived at very different 
conclusions. 

The following extracts taken from the author's re- 
joinder (supplement to the New Church Herald, 1857), 
will furnish, perhaps, the best view of this controversy. 

" ' COMPAGINATOR ' versus ' PERAMBULATOR.' 

" Mr. Editor, 

" I notice that two or three of your recent numbers are pretty 
largely occupied with a review, or rather an intended refutation, 
of the main position of a work of mine, entitled, ' Priesthood 
and Clergy unknown to Christianity.' I am by no means in- 
sensible to the compliment implied in the honest aim to submit 
my views to the test of a close and argumentative analysis, even 
though I should feel, as I do in the present case, that the attempt 
had entirely failed of its object, and that not the slightest im- 
pression had been made upon the fortress of the general theory. 
An author who has treated with laborious care and earnestness 
what he deems a subject of vital importance to society or the 
Church, is more aggrieved by the apathy which his zeal often 
encounters, than by the most vigorous opposition ; for where there 
is opposition there is at least life, and truth only despairs of tri- 
umph when a prevailing deadness to its appeals exists. While, 
then, I am happy to find that an able dissenter has seen fit to 
come forth and enter the lists as a champion for the old doc- 
trines which he thinks have been fallaciously arraigned in my 
pages, I cannot, at the same time, allow my gratification, on this 
score, to blind my eyes to the intrinsic weakness or wrongness 
of the arguments employed. A view of truth which is worthy 
to be broached, is worthy to be defended ; and though I have 
already written much on the subject, with which your readers 
are familiar, I am induced again to trespass on their indul- 
gence, lest I should appear, by my silence, to have succumbed 
to the force of my opponent's objections. As this is far from 
being the case, I wish to be heard in reply. * * * 

" As preliminary to the general course of my remarks, per- 
mit me to say, that the work in question was not originally de- 
signed for the New Church. Though written by a New Church- 
man, yet it was published anonymously, and with not a single 
reference to Swedenborg, that its reasonings might have more 
weight with those for whom it was intended. It proposes to 



90 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

take the man of the Old Church on his own ground, and to 
show that those Scriptures on which he so confidently relies in 
support of the clerical order utterly fail, when brought to the 
test of rigid criticism, to sustain his theory, and that the history 
of the Church in its primitive days, goes, beyond all question, 
to confirm this conclusion. Such was the design of the book ; 
and, viewed from this stand-point, 'Perambulator' does not 
refuse to admit for it a high degree of plausibility. ' TVe doubt 
whether the anti-clerical doctrine has ever before been argued 
with so much ability, or has had so much learning and sound 
criticism marshalled in its defence, as in the volume before us. 
If so, it has never fallen under our observation ; and we do not 
quite see how an Old Churchman, or one who believes in the 
divine authority of Paul's epistles, can resist the cogency of this 
writer's reasoning, or escape his general conclusion.' If such, 
then, be the character of the work in reference to its end; if it 
does, of set purpose, waive all allusion to the New Church, and 
its peculiar teachings, it becomes a fair question, what motive 
a New Churchman could have to assail its positions, and, as far 
as an adverse line of argument could go, to defeat its end with 
the adherents of the Old Church. It might be presumed likely 
to accomplish some good in that direction, by showing the weak- 
ness of one department of their system, that might lead them to 
suspect a possible like defect in some other. In these circum- 
stances, it would seem that the main motive prompting a New 
Churchman to take a stand against the book would be an appre- 
hension that in successfully combating an error on the one hand, 
it assails and jeopardizes some important truth on the other ; 
that, in exposing Old Church fallacies, it compromises New 
Church verities. But, even in this case, it devolved upon the 
reviewer to judge whether the good it promised to do to those 
for whom it was intended was counterbalanced by the harm it 
might possibly do to those for whom it was not intended. Grant- 
ing that, in its sweep of argument, it might perchance impinge 
upon some truth of the New Dispensation, was that truth so 
momentous and vital to the Church that it could not brook 
silence ? "Was it absolutely necessary to exhibit to the world 
the spectacle of two avowed New Churchmen, arrayed on op- 
posite sides of a great question of divine order in the Church ? 

" Let not this be construed as the language of deprecation. 
I have not the slightest objection to the most unsparing review 
of my argument. I welcome it from any quarter. 

"'Perambulator' opens his logical enfilade by the following 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 91 

distinct avowal of what he believes, and of what he shall en- 
deavor to prove : 

UH "We believe in the clerical order or profession as a distinct 
caste that is always to exist in the Church ; for a caste is nothing 
more than a class of the same rank or profession. We believe 
in the pulpit as a permanent institution — permanent, because 
based upon the constitution of the human soul — growing out 
of the wants of our religious nature, and demanded by the exi- 
gencies of our social state. We believe in a clergy as a distinct 
order or class, just as Ave believe in lawyers, doctors, merchants, 
sailors, ship-builders, artists, authors, etc., as constituting each 
a distinct class or profession. And we believe in the divine 
order and permanence of the one just as firmly as we do in the 
divine order and permanency of the others, and for precisely 
the same reasons.' 

" These classes or professions he regards as the normal pro- 
duct of ' the constitution of the human soul, growing out of the 
wants of our religious nature, and demanded by the exigencies 
of our social state.' His idea is more fully expanded in the 
paragraph which follows : 

" ' We think this general postulate may be easily maintained, 
that every faculty with which the Creator has endowed the 
human race, not only points to a specific use, in whose per- 
formance it finds its gratification and delight, but must and will, 
in a state of true social order, ultimate itself in a class of individ- 
uals, who will stand as the special representative of that faculty 
— the special ministry in that use towards which the faculty 
points. For example : All men possess in some degree the 
musical faculty, and, as a necessary consequence, there exists a 
class called musicians. All men possess the constructive fac- 
ulty ; hence there arises in a social state a class of builders, 
and mechanics of various kinds, according to the other faculties 
with which construction is combined. All men possess the 
imitative, or mimetic faculty, which ultimates itself in the social 
state in a class of actors, giving rise to the institution of the 
drama. All men have something of the calculating, or mathe- 
matical faculty, which gives rise, of necessity, to a class of 
mathematicians. All possess the faculties of comparison, ide- 
ality, perfectiveness, etc., which, combined with certain other 
faculties, produce the aesthetic talent, ultimating itself in the 
social state in a class of artists. And so we have the various 
uses of human society arranged and discriminated according to 



92 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

tlic variety of human faculties, and their endless combinations, 
and resulting, of necessity, from this variety.' 

" Pursuing the same train of thought he holds that, as all 
men possess in potency the priestly or leading faculty, so the 
universal possession of this priestly faculty clearly points to 
and necessitates the existence of a priestly or clerical order. 
'It must and will, in a true social state, ultimate itself in a 
priesthood or clergy visibly and externally embodied in a dis- 
tinct class or caste.' "We shall see, in the sequel of our remarks, 
that this ground of the institution of the priesthood is distinctly 
abandoned, and the office placed upon entirely another ba^is, 
viz., the necessary and inevitable development of an external 
priesthood from an internal or spiritual one. It is possible the 
writer may not recognize the discrepancy between the two 
theories of the origination of the priestly class, but he will not 
fail to do so when we come to state it in its proper place. 

" But a very natural query is anticipated and answered in this 
connection : 

" ' Is it asked, why are all not alike ministers or priests ? 
Why a distinct class, seeing that the priestly faculty is bestowed 
on all? We answer, for precisely the same reason that all are 
not musicians, artists, merchants, or mathematicians, notwith- 
standing the musical, aesthetic, mercantile, and mathematical 
faculties are a common gift to all. Undoubtedly all human 
powers and faculties belong to every human soul, just as all 
human members and organs belong to every human body. But 
as in the latter the organs vary indefinitely in size and strength, 
adapting the body to various physical uses, so there is an end- 
less diversity in the original strength and combination of the 
mental faculties, pointing to a like diversity of uses, and by con- 
sequence, to an arrangement of society into as many distinct 
classes, castes, or professions. We say, then, without now touch- 
ing the question of ordination, or induction into the clerical office 
(though we shall come to that by and by), that the universal 
distribution of the teaching and leading, i. e. of the priestly or 
ministerial faculty, necessitates the existence of a distinct cleri- 
cal or priestly order, as certainly as the universal distribution 
of the musical and mathematical faculties necessitates the exist- 
ence of musicians and mathematicians as distinct classes of 
men.' 

" We have thus presented to us the grand argument which 
leads the van in the assault upon our position. Let us apply 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 93 

the glass to our eye, and explore the enemy from the wall as 
lie approaches. 

" ' The innate constitution of the human soul,' it is said,'is such 
as to comprise within itself a variety of faculties determined to 
certajn uses, and these uses legitimately give rise to certain 
classes or castes who are mainly devoted to them. Functions 
necessarily ultimate themselves in functionaries, and these, as a 
matter of course, become fixed and permanent members of the 
social body. The use of leading, teaching, preaching, or what- 
ever it be that distinguishes the priesthood or clergy, follows 
the same law, and originates a distinct class in the community, 
who are to be professionally trained to their services, and sus- 
tained in them by a stipendiary allowance like the incumbents 
of other salaried offices.' 

" Such is the theory of ' Perambulator.' In reply, I am com- 
pelled to say that it is founded upon an alleged analogy which 
fails entirely when brought to the test. To evince this we have 
only to advert to that doctrine of priesthood which everywhere 
prevails, and against which my arguments are all directed. 
This doctrine is that of a distinct, consecrated, ordained class, 
separated by a kind of discrete degree from the mass of the 
laity, and performing certain duties and enjoying certain pre- 
rogatives in consequence of their consecration, which appertain 
to them alone. It is essential to the clerical scheme, as it ob- 
tains in the Church, that those who are admitted to the office 
should first submit themselves for an examination into their 
qualifications, and then should be formally inducted into the 
priestly dignity by those who are already priests or ministers, 
and who are thereby empowered to impart a similar official 
character to such others as they may deem possessed of the 
requisite gifts and abilities. Now this fact, as is evident at a 
glance, constitutes a heaven-wide difference between the clergy 
as a class and the professions above alluded to. Granting that 
the musical faculty, possessed in potency by all men, generates 
a musical profession, yet every one knows that this is not a 
privileged or self-perpetuating class ; that no academy or corps 
of musicians ever thought of erecting themselves into a court or 
tribunal to try the claims of other aspirants to musical distinc- 
tion, and to confer upon them the right to exercise profession- 
ally a faculty with which the Creator had endowed them. Who 
will say that the choice of music as a profession is not a per- 
fectly free and voluntary act on the part of those who feel in- 
wardly drawn to it ? Just according to their talent for it will 



94 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

they find patronage in it, and they need no other license in the 
calling than their innate love for it. Not eo with the clerical 
calling. While no one ever dreamed that musicians only could 
make musicians, who almost has ever dreamed otherwise than 
that clergymen were absolutely necessary to make clergymen ? 
Would not the great mass, even of religious men, think it quite 
as feasible for an artist to take a daguerreotype at midnight, as 
for holy orders to be conferred upon a man without the pres- 
ence, consent, and concurrence of an ordaining minister or an 
ordaining conclave ? The same remarks apply with equal 
force to the case of builders, mechanics, actors, artists, mathe- 
maticians and others specified by the reviewer. 

" It is true that the professions of law and medicine form an 
exception. For prudential reasons certain restrictions have 
been thrown by human legislation around these professions, 
and the primitive rights of men in regard to them abridged. 
Lawyers and physicians, therefore, constitute a class more 
nearly allied to the clerical than any other ; but even here the 
parallel fails in some important particulars, as I have shown on 
a former occasion. I quote a paragraph : 

" ' From what we have now said, it will be seen that we think 
little of the force of the argument drawn from the supposed 
parallel case of the doctor and the law}-er. The cases are not 
parallel. The vocations of the doctor and the lawyer require 
of necessity the attainment of knowledges diverse from those of 
the mass of the community among whom their respective pro- 
fessions are practised. A peculiar training is therefore re- 
quisite in their case, because the end is peculiar. They are to 
do what their patients and clients cannot be expected to do, 
and they are to prepare themselves accordingly. But how is 
it in a Church? What is a Church society in its essential 
nature ? Is it not an association formed for purposes in which 
every member has the same interest with every other member? 
Is there not the utmost community of object prevailing among 
those who belong to it? And is not this object one that has 
relation mainly to life ? Is not the Church rather a school of 
life than a seminary even of sacred science? What interest 
have the so-called teachers apart from that of the taught ? 
What does it behoove one to know which it does not another? 
How then can there be a basis for a distinction of classes 
similar to those of physic and law ? Or with what justice can 
the -peculiarity in the one sphere of use be offset against the 
community in the other ? The comparison is altogether inap- 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 95 

ijropriate, as in the one case we are dealing with an art or 

science which is necessarily limited to a class, and which must 
be acquired by a special course of training; whereas, in (he 
other, we contemplate a form of spiritual and moral life, the 
fund ions and obligations of which pertain equally to every 
individual.' 

'• The preaching use, according to ' Perambulator,' falls into 
the same category. This, he says, is ' a distinct function requir- 
ing to be filled by functionaries. It is one of the uses to be 
performed in a Christian community.' The legitimate infer- 
ence to be drawn from this he thus states : 

" ' And is it not sound doctrine to ailirm that every distinct 
use in a community, supposes a class of persons who are espe- 
cially devoted to that use ? Tilling the soil is a use ; hence a 
class of farmers. Building houses is a use ; hence a class of 
builders or house carpenters. Interpreting the laws and ad- 
justing claims under them is a use ; hence a class of lawyers. 
Healing the sick is a use ; hence a class of doctors. And by 
parity of reasoning, preaching the gospel is a use ; hence a 
class of preachers, ministers, or priests : the name by which 
they are called is not at all important. Then there is nothing 
anti-christian in this division of men into distinct classes accord- 
ing to the uses they severally perform. For it does not follow, 
because of this arrangement into classes or distinct professions, 
that any civil, social, or religious rights or privileges are denied 
to any class. No such consequence results either from the 
theory or the practice. But it does follow that there are spe- 
cific duties belonging to one class which are not so appropri- 
ate to another.' 

"In rejoinder to all this, I have only to say, (1) That the 
reasoning falls to the ground, as a matter of course, provided 
it be clearly shown that the analogy or parallelism alleged to 
exist between the sacred and the secular classes of society is a 
fallacy. This I trust to have shown in my precedent remarks. 
If those remarks are well founded, the inference drawn by 
' Perambulator' from the existence of various classes, and 
professional functions in the social syetem, is an absolute non 
sequitur, as the two departments do not come at all into the 
same category. (2) The views I have advanced on the gen- 
eral subject abundantly-secure the exercise of all the functions 
that are truly useful to the church, and virtually all the benefit 
resulting from that distinction of classes, of which my reviewer 
thinks so highly. The quotations from my work contained in 



96 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

his own pages, are amply sufficient to evince the truth of this 
assertion. Take, for instance, the following: 'A variety of 
spiritual gifts is requisite in building up (he body (of Chris- 
tians), and certain gifts pertain to some, which confer a special 
ability on the score of teaching and leading. Their gifts and 
endowments are perceived by the society to be adapted to their 
exigencies, and they receive and acknowledge them in this 
relation. They do not confer any power upon them; they do 
not, strictly speaking, appoint them; they simply acknowledge 
them as qualified, and thereby designated by the Lord himself 
to officiate in this capacity, in the performance of a use which 
the states of the society render requisite.' To this the reviewer 
appends the remark, that 'this is sound New Church doctrine 
upon the subject under consideration ; and wc see from this 
that theie are certain persons endowed with ' a special ability 
on the score of teaching and leading ; ' an ability which shows 
to others, that they are ' designated by the Lord himself to 
officiate in this capacity.' Assuredly this is what I hold, and 
what I have reiterated over and over again in my published 
essays. Permit the citation of one or two paragraphs, for we 
are here touching the real point of divergence hetween ' Peram- 
bulator' and myself on the question at issue. 

u * Is it so very difficult to perceive that what we mainly deny 
is not a function of ministry in the New Church, but an office 
or order of clergy; for while we hold to the one we repudiate 
the other. 

"'But it will be asked, Is there no such thing as a distinct 
function of teaching or preaching in the New Church ? Can 
airy thing be more obvious than the recognition of such a func- 
tion, both in the Word and in the writings of the church? 
And if there is to be teaching, must there not be teachers ? 
Does not a function imply functionaries, or men discharging " a 
distinct office and use?" If all are teachers, where are the 
taught ? If all are leaders, where are the led ? To this we 
reply, that diversity of uses in the Lord's spiritual body does 
not necessarity create diversity of grades in those wdio perform 
such uses. We acknowledge at once the necessity of teaching 
and of teachers in the church; but we deny that this fact lays 
a foundation for that radical distinction of clergy and laity 
which has obtained currency throughout Christendom, and 
which has opened a Pandora's box of evils and mischiefs to 
the church of the past. 

'• • We are well aware how difficult it will be for many of our 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 97 

readers to rest in our conclusion, that there may be a distinction 
in use which does not amount to a distinction in office, or rather 
in official order or caste. Nor are we sure that we can make 
our idea any more intelligible by expansion or illustration. If 
it does not strike the mind with somewhat of an intuitive per- 
ception, it will not probably be apprehended after pages of 
elaborate exposition. We would say, however, that by the 
distinct order or office of the clergy in the church, Ave mean an 
order which perpetuates itself by some special form of ordina- 
tion or inauguration, wherein the body of the church, or the 
laity, as they are termed, have no share. That such an order 
of men, whether called priests, clergymen, or ministers, was 
designed to exist in the New Church is what we venture to 
deny ; while at the same time we freely admit and strenuously 
maintain that there is a function of leaching which is to be 
discharged by those who have the requisite qualifications there- 
for. If these two propositions are deemed inconsistent with 
and destructive of each other, so it must be. In our view, they 
are not.' * * * 

* * * " ' Perambulator ' and every other reader will now 
perceive the precise position on which I plant myself, and how 
far that position is shaken by the critiques to which lam reply- 
ing. I readily concede all that the writer affirms respecting 
the diverse faculties and the consequent uses which he predi- 
cates of our constitutional nature. I admit, as a matter of fact, 
that on the ground of these faculties and functions, ' men are 
every where arranged into distinct classes, castes, and profes- 
sions.' But while so far agreed, I dissent entirely from the 
import which he would assign to the terms ' distinct class,' 'dis- 
tinct caste,' etc., when applied to the clergy. The distinction 
which I hold and have endeavored to establish, is of such a 
nature that it does not lift the ministry of the church out flora, 
among the laity, and set them on a separate plane, but merely 
recognizes them as discharging a peculiar function in the midst 
of the laity, just as musicians, mechanics, artists, actors, en- 
gineers, authors, etc., constitute separate classes in the com- 
munity, without, at the same time, forming castes essentially 
distinct from the masses to which they belong, 

" But I pass from this to the more important and vital posi- 
tions of the review, and, whhput travelling far, I encounter the 
following among other strange settings forth which it exhibits : 

" ' We admit, then, as freely as " Compaginator " himself, the 
existence of spiritual priests and spiritual kings. And we will 
9 



98 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

go further, and concede that these are the true priests and true 
king?, just as the spiritual sense of the Word is its true sense. 
But we maintain, contrary to our friend's theory, that because 
there are spiritual priests and kings, therefore there must be 
natural ones also in a state of true order. We know there is a 
spiritual temple : Will it therefore be maintained that there is 
no need of a natural temple? There is a spiritual altar and 
spiritual worship: Shall we, therefore, argue against the ne- 
cessity of a natural or external altar, and external worship ? 
There is a spiritual marriage, which is the conjunction of good 
and truth in human minds: Shall we, therefore, set ourselves 
against any other kind of marriage? There is an internal and 
spiritual church — a church consisting of all the Lord's people 
" dispersed throughout the whole world," and visible to no mortal 
eye, but only to the eye of Him who seeth in secret: Shall we, 
therefore, deny the existence of an external church — of the 
church as an organized and visible institution ? There is a 
spiritual Word and a spiritual world : Shall we, therefore, main- 
tain that a natural Word and a natural world are quite un- 
necessary ? No. The spiritual and invisible everywhere and 
always seeks to ultimate itself in the external and visible. 
There is a spiritual temple, a spiritual altar, spiritual worship, 
spiritual marriage, a spiritual church, and a spiritual world. 
And it is according to divine order that each of these should 
be "externally and visibly embodied." The spiritual, so far 
from justifying the belief that the natural is needless or out of 
order, actually necessitates its existence. They are clearly re- 
lated, like soul and body. If, then, we admit the existence 
of spiritual priests and spiritual kings, how can we logically 
escape the conclusion that there must be external and natural 
ones also? Admit, if you will, that the spiritual in every thing 
is the real, and the natural the non-real ; that one is substance, 
the other shadow. But as a shadow cannot exist without a 
substance, so neither, xvJierc light prevails, can there be any sub- 
stance without a shadow.' 

" Now, I must in all frankness declare, that in regard to the 
views advanced in this paragraph, there are very thick scales 
obscuring either the writer's mental eyesight or mine. If I 
should say that the train of reasoning was essentially and rad- 
ically fallacious, and that the presentation of the argument 
came amazingly near to 'covering up falsities with truths,' I 
should say no more than. I shall hope to make apparent a; I 
proceed. The general drift of the argument i; obviou*. It u 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 99 

to charge upon the sentiments which I have advocated the in- 
ference, that in maintaining the spiritual I do virtually deny 
the natural. This is the animus of the entire paragraph. The 
reviewer holds ' that because there are spiritual priests and 
kings, therefore there must be natural ones also in a state of 
true order ;' consequently, as he regards me as holding the ex- 
istence in the church of spiritual priests and spiritual kings 
only, I must of course deny the existence of the natural func- 
tionaries bearing these titles and characters. This point will 
repay a little close examination. 

" And first, as to the reviewer's illustrations. The near and 
intimate relation subsisting between the spiritual and the nat- 
ural spheres, and the constant 'seeking of the spiritual and 
invisible to ultimate itself in the external and visible,' is of 
course a primary truth of New Church philosophy. This is 
the fundamental law. But how far the application of this law 
to the cases adduced is legitimate, is something more than 
questionable. Let us look at it. Marriage and a natural 
world, as flowing from spiritual causes, are doubtless in point, 
though not illustrating any principle which I have denied. 
But what shall be said of the other instances adduced ? ' There 
is a spiritual temple, a spiritual altar, spiritual worship, spir- 
itual marriage, a spiritual church, and a spiritual world. And 
it is according to divine order that each of these should be ex- 
ternally and visibly embodied. The spiritual, so far from justi- 
fying the belief that the natural is needless or out of order, 
actually necessitates its existence. They are clearly related, 
like soul and body.' That is to say, as the soul elaborates the 
body, so do these spiritual objects elaborate the natural. A 
spiritual temple elaborates, or, if he prefers, necessitates, a nat- 
ural temple ; a spiritual altar necessitates a natural altar, etc. 

" To this theory I have two insuperable objections : (1.) As 
I understand the teachings of our author, the main position 
is entirely erroneous. There is no such thing as a spiritual 
temple apart from a natural temple, nor a spiritual altar 
apart from a natural altar. Much less is the formation or 
genesis of a natural temple or altar from a spiritual. There 
are, indeed, certain interior or spiritual principles, which are, 
or were represented on the natural plane by a temple and an 
altar; but these principles never existed in the spiritual world 
in the form of temples or altars, although they assumed that 
form when ultimated in matter. An altar, for instance, Swe- 
denborg informs us, represents ■ the holy principle of worship ;' 



100 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

an altar of earth, ' the worship of the Lord from good ;' an 
altar of stone, ' the worship of the Lord from truth.' Conse- 
quently, a natural altar is the ontbirth of these spiritual princi- 
ples, and not of any such entity as a spiritual altar in the 
spiritual world. If such an object were to be seen there, it 
would still be representative, just as it is here ; and represen- 
tative of the same things. (2.) Temples and altars are now 
abolished forever. The Jewish system to which they pertained 
has passed away by a permanent abrogation, which is but 
another form of saying that the influx of the principles which 
formerly ultimated themselves in those structures, does no 
longer determine itself into either temples or altars, they being 
wholly superseded in the dispensation under which we now 
live. These examples, therefore, even if they were well-found- 
ed, have no pertinency to the argument before us. If we 
could for a moment suppose that spiritual altars should now 
necessitate natural ones, what would be their use? Altars are 
for sacrifice ; what kind of animals does ' Perambulator' think 
would be offered up upon these altars of earth or stone ? The 
fact is, all the spiritual temple and altar that there ever was or 
will be, except representative ones in heaven, was to be seen 
at Jerusalem in the material fabrics so termed. They were 
spiritual because they had a spiritual significancy, while, at the 
same time, they were natural from being constructed of mate- 
rials furnished from the natural world. It is the universal 
law, that, in all matters of this kind, the spiritual is to be re- 
cognized ix the natural, and not out of it; the ignoring of 
which law supplies the key to the reviewer's very grave mis- 
takes on this whole subject. The clear statement of the law 
lays the axe at the root of his entire theory respecting the 
church and the priesthood. * * * 

"In affirming the existence of a spiritual priesthood, I have 
demanded proof of the intended existence of any other than 
such a priesthood. I would have the divine authority cited for 
such an order of priesthood as now exists, and has long ex- 
isted, within 1he bounds of Christendom. How is the demand 
answered ? Let us listen again to the critic : 

" ' We insist, therefore, that inasmuch as there is a clear dis- 
tinction to be observed between the Church as an institution, 
and the Church as consisting only of those "who are written in 
the Lamb's book of life" — the one being external and visible, 
the other internal and invisible — the one being humanly, the 
other divinely organized, a like distinction is to be observed in 



OF PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 101 

the priesthood in these two churches. In the one, it must of 
necessity be an external, visible, and humanly appointed priest- 
hood, since the Church in which it is called to minister, is an 
institution, i. e., an external, visible, and humanly organized 
Church ; in the other it must be an invisible and divinely ap- 
pointed priesthood, since the Church in which it ministers is 
an internal, invisible, and divinely organized Church. And 
we hold it to be not less unreasonable and illogical to admit 
the existence of the Church as a visible institution, and at the 
same time deny the propriety or need of any priesthood " visi- 
bly and externally embodied," than it would be to admit the 
existence of a material world, and at the same time deny the 
need of material bodies, in which to live and perform uses in 
this world. It is plain that the functionaries must ever be in 
some sense homogeneous with the body or sphere in which 
their functions are to be exercised. If one be external and 
visible, the other must be external and visible also. But if 
one be invisible and spiritual, so likewise must the other. And 
we might as reasonably maintain, that spirits divested of their 
material covering, could perform all needed uses in this mate- 
rial world, as to insist there is no need of any but spiritual 
priests to exercise the teaching function in the Church, viewed 
as an outward and visible institution. As an institution, the 
Church is organized by men — no matter if the organization 
extend not beyond ' the single societies.' Its sphere of action 
is defined by men. Its rules are framed and its affairs admin- 
istered by men. And if preaching be an acknowledged func- 
tion in this Church, then it would seem to be just as orderly 
and proper that the preachers should be elected or appointed 
by the people, as that the president and directors of a bank or 
railroad, the overseers of a college, or the officers of any other 
institution, should be so appointed. So long, therefore, as we 
hold to the Church as a visible institution, consistency would 
seem to require us to believe in a priesthood "visibly and ex- 
ternally embodied in a distinct class or caste.' " 

" Here is the stone we receive when asking for bread. "We 
demand the requisite authority for a distinct consecrated class 
or caste of priests to serve in the Lord's church, and we are 
referred to an institution which is ' a humanly organized socie- 
ty or association' — ' an external, visible, and humanly organ- 
ized Church' — an institution in which ' the functionaries are 
appointed by men ; its sphere of action defined by men, its 
rules framed and its affairs administered by men ;' and one 
9* 



102 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

with which I do not perceive that the divine providence or 
ordination has any more to do than it has with the hierarchies 
of Romanism, Islamism, Brahminism, or Buddhism — all which 
are wisely permitted, but not one of them provided. 

* * * " But I pass to another phase of the argument of 
' Perambulator.' It relates to the position I have assumed in 
respect to the non-existence cf a clergy as a distinct class in 
the primitive Christian Church. And here I have the satis- 
faction of recording his own testimony to the sufficiency of the 
proofs I have adduced on this head. ' He cites abundant 
authorities, and good ones, in proof of this position.' ' The 
following,' he says, ' from " the exact Geiseler," is quoted, with 
other testimony, and fully sustains his affirmation.' Again, lie 
says, ' we readily concede that our friend's theory was the one 
generally in vogue among the early Christians. There is no 
room to doubt it.' It is gratifying, in a debate like the present, 
to have a fact of so much importance freely admitted by an 
opponent. Although the historical argument is, in my view, 
but of secondary import compared with the Scriptural, yet I am 
thankful for the reviewer's concession, that on this point I have 
not labored in vain. With many — perhaps with the majority 
}f readers — the fact conceded by the writer would go very far 
towards substantiating the main thesis, that as the distinction 
between clergy and laity was not to be detected from the extant 
documents, either in the apostolic or the early patristic age, 
therefore the evidence was paramount against its designed 
existence at all. For if such a distinction resting upon divine 
authority, did not then exist, when did it take its rise, and what 
kind of sanction does it plead for itself? But ' Perambulator,' 
with a lofty disregard of all obvious and ordinary deductions, 
strikes out into a new track of inference, and one which de- 
serves credit for its novelty if not for its soundness. 'While 
we admit the premise, we deduce from it an inference precisely 
the reverse of the writer's. We say that the very fact that this 
theory was in vogue in the infancy of the Church, is itself evi- 
dence that it is not the true theory, nor one to be practised 
upon by the Church in its mature state.' Our curiosity is, of 
course, awakened to learn on what grounds the reviewer ad- 
mits the premise, but rejects the conclusion drawn from it. 
He is ready to satisfy our queries : 

"'Now, while we admit the premise, we deduce from it an 
inference precisely the reverse of this writer's. We say that 
the very fact that this theory was in vogue in the infancy of 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 103 

the Church, is itself evidence that it is not the true theory, nor 
«*ne to be practised upon by the Church in her more mature 
•fate. At the period referred to, the Christian Church as an 
institution had hardly begun to exist. It was not then formed, 
but was in the process of formation. The Church was infantile 
in its state, and alike infantile in its form. All institutions, 
like all organic forms, are known to be less perfect in their 
structure and organization at first, than they are at a later 
period. 

" ' No one would think of referring to a little infant as a model 
of the human form. All we can say is, that the infant is the 
human form while yet in its feeble, immature, and undeveloped 
state. And just so the Christian Church, viewed as an out- 
ward institution, is seen among the early Christians, not in its 
mature and perfected, but in its infantile, immature, and there- 
fore, necessarily imperfect, form. And we should as soon think 
of pointing to the tender sapling as a model of the "gnarled 
oak," or to the infant at its mother's breast as a model of the 
human form, as we should think of looking to the Christian 
Church in its earliest and infantile state, to ascertain the true 
order of the Church as a visible institution, or to determine 
the propriety or need of a ministry as a distinct class in the 
Church. 

" ' We argue, from the conceded practice of the early Chris- 
tians, to a totally different conclusion from our friend. They 
had among them no clerical order ; they knew no preachers as 
a class ; they were all preachers. This is precisely what we 
should have expected in the primitive state of the Church. 
But should we expect to find the same thing in an advanced 
and mature state of this institution ? Reason and analogy con- 
strain us to answer, No. The subdivision of labor, and the 
consequent distribution of men into classes, continually more 
and more numerous, keeping pace with the advance of society 
m civilization and refinement, clearly points to the ultimate 
segregation of those who exercise the preaching function into 
a distinct class — as distinct, at least, as lawyers, physicians, 
farmers, merchants, or any other class. The fact, therefore, 
that, in the first age of the Christian Church, " all taught and 
all baptized," at such times and places as they found it con- 
venient, is, in our judgment, no argument in favor of Compagi- 
nator's theory ; but on the contrary it is a strong argument 
against it, since it is inevitable that institutions change their 



104 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

form and polity as they advance from an infantile to a mature 
state.' 

' ; We have here the quintescence of the whole argument on 
this head, and it will not require a lengthened reply. The 
institution-theory is plainly destined to serve the writer as a 
universal solvent, in which all the main positions of ' Compagi- 
nator ' are to be melted away and lost. Yet I have some coun- 
ter considerations to suggest on this head, which may not be 
found undeserving of notice. There is nothing, I think, more 
unequivocally affirmed in the illuminated writings, than that the 
earliest ages of all Churches are the purest, from which state 
the tendency is uniformly to a state of deterioration and decline. 
A graphic picture is given by our author of this tendency in 
reference to the primitive Christian Church, of which we are 
here speaking : 

" ' When a church is first raised up and established by the 
Lord, it exists in the beginning in a state of purity, and the 
members then love each other as brethren ; as is known from 
what is recorded of the primitive Christian Church after the 
Lord's coming. All the members of the church at that time 
lived one amongst another as brethren, and also called each 
other brethren, and mutually loved each other; but in process 
of time charity diminished, and at length vanished away ; and 
as charity vanished, evils succeeded, and with evils falsities 
also insinuated themselves, whence arose schisms and heresies. 
These would never have existed, if charity had continued to 
live and rule ; for in such case they would not have called 
schism by the name of schism, nor heresy by the name of 
heresy, but they would have called them doctrinals agreeable 
to each person's particular opinion, or way of thinking, which 
they would have left to every one's conscience, not judging or 
condemning any for their opinions, provided they did not deny 
fundamental principles, that is, the Lord, eternal life, and the 
Word, and maintained nothing contrary to divine order, that, is, 
contrary to the commandments of the decalogue. — A. C. 1834.' 

" So also of churches in general : 

"'With respect to churches the case is as follows: in the 
beginning charity is held as a fundamental, every one in this 
case loves another as a brother, and is affected from a principle 
of good, not for himself, but for his neighbor, for the general 
good, for the Lord's kingdom, and above all things for the Lord; 
but in process of time charity begins to grow cold and to become 
none; afterwards there arises hatred one towards another, which, 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 105 

although it does not appear in an external form, by reason of 
their being subject to the laws of civil society, and to external 
bonds of restraint, yet it is nourished inwardly ; these external 
bonds of restraint are derived from self-love and the love of the 
world, and consist in the love of honor and eminence, in the love 
of gain and of power also grounded in gain, consequently in the 
love of reputation ; under these loves hatred conceals itself, which 
is of such a nature, that it wishes to bear rule over all, and to 
appropriate to itself the property of all ; and when these loves 
are opposed, the persons under their influence inwardly despise 
their neighbor, breathe revenge, have a sensible delight in their 
neighbor's ruin, yea, exercise cruelty towards him as far as they 
dare ; such is the consequence of the departure of charity from 
the Church when its end comes, and in such case it is said of 
it, that there is no longer any faith, for where there is no charity 
there can be no faith, as has been abundantly shown above. — 
A. O.2910.' 

" Citations to the same purpose could be multiplied to any ex- 
tent, going to show that the primitive state of Churches is the 
most innocent and heavenly, forcing upon us the inference that 
it is also the most orderly ; that as its internal is charity in prin- 
ciple, its external is charity in act, or the love of the neighbor 
in deeds of beneficence, which is at the greatest remove from the 
love of pre-eminence, dominion, oppression, or even ' segrega- 
tion ' into distinct orders and classes, for which ' Perambulator ' 
pleads so strenuously. Yet this is the state which he calls ' in- 
fantile, immature, and imperfect,' and no more to be compared 
to its advanced and ripened state than is the suckling at its 
mother's breast to the stalwart man of full growth, or the ' tender 
sapling ' to the ' gnarled oak.' The difference is effected by the 
magic power of institution which is indispensable to the perfec- 
tion of the divine embryos, and the only Cyropcedia to the young 
Cyrus of the Church. 

"• Now, I have always been accustomed, as a New Church- 
man, to regard the state of infancy as the happiest possible sym- 
bol of the Church in its purest periods, whether those were the 
earliest or the latest. For surely we can form no idea of a man 
or a Church higher than that in which the innocence of infancy 
is combined with the wisdom of age, as this is our highest con- 
ception of the celestial state. Wisdom is indeed acquired by 
knowledges, but the infantile element is still to be preserved, 
and progress secured, not by the influence of human institutions, 
but by the accumulation of knowledges from revelation and 



106 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

science, a treasure constantly adding itself to the stored remains 
of infancy and childhood. Thus the Church is built up after the 
pattern of its Divine Head. 

" ' It is not possible for any one, as man, to be conjoined to 
Jehovah, or the Lord, except by knowledges ; for by knowl- 
edges man becomes man. This was the case with the Lord, 
since he was born as another man, and was instructed as another 
man ; nevertheless into his knowledges, as so many recipient 
vessels, things celestial were continually insinuated, so that his 
knowledges were continually made the recipient vessels of 
things celestial, and these vessels at length themselves became 
celestial also. Thus he was continually advancing to the celes- 
tial things of infancy. For, as was said above, the celestial 
things appertaining to love are insinuated from the earliest 
state of infancy to childhood, and even to youth, as man is 
then, and afterwards, furnished with sciences and knowledges. 
Where man is such as to be capable of being regenerated, those 
sciences and knowledges are replenished with things celestial 
appertaining to love and charity, and so are implanted in the 
celestial things with which he was gifted in his progress from 
infancy to childhood and youth ; and thus his external man is 
conjoined with the internal. They are first implanted in the 
celestial things with which he was gifted in his youth, then in 
those with which he was gifted in childhood, and lastly in those 
with which he was gifted in infancy : and then he becomes an 
infant, such as those of whom the Lord says, that of such is the 
kingdom of God. This implantation is effected by the Lord 
alone; wherefore, nothing celestial exists with man, nor can 
exist, which is not from the Lord, and which is not the Lord's. 
But the Lord, by his own power, conjoined his external man 
with his internal, and filled his knowledges with things celestial, 
and implanted them with things celestial, all according to divine 
order ; first in the celestial things of childhood, and then in the 
celestial things of the age between childhood and infancy, lastly 
in the celestial things of his own infancy. Thus he became, at 
the same time, as to his Human Essence, innocence itself and ' 
love itself, from whom is all innocence and all love, both in the 
heavens and the earth. Such innocence is true infancy, because 
it is at the same time wisdom ; but the innocence of infancy, un- 
less by knowledges it becomes the innocence of wisdom, is of 
no use ; wherefore infants, in the other life, are initiated into 
knowledges. — A. C. 1616.' 

" Here surely is a process of development very different from 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 107 

anything effected by the institutions of human wisdom, however 
sagacious or imposing. Here Ave behold a process by which the 
developed man is still an infant, though a wise one, and one 
which stamps as a fallacy the writer's remark, that ' no one 
would refer to a little infant as a model of the human form.' 
Assuredly he is a model of the human form, and a most beauti- 
ful one too — a model in miniature, it is true, but none the less 
perfect for that. Identity of form does not suppose identity of 
dimensions, and form is here the theme of remark. The struc- 
ture and organization of manhood is indeed more compact and 
firm than that of infancy, just as the wisdom of years is more 
substantial than the ignorance of infancy ; but as the form of 
infancy differs only in size from that of manhood, so the infantile 
element is to run on through every period of the development of 
the man and the Church to the full maturity of each. The more 
perfectly the infancy of the Church is reproduced and re-appears 
in its advanced periods, the more perfect is its state. If in its 
early days the distinction of clergy and laity was unknown, and 
the priestly and teaching functions were viewed as a part of the 
universal birthright and prerogative of Christians, which ' Per- 
ambulator' admits, what inference more palpable than that the 
same order of things will return with the returning golden age 
of the Church? 

" We may say, then, that wdien the development of the 
Church is truly normal and orderly, the external polity of its 
maturity will be essentially the same with that of its dawning 
era. But when its development is abnormal and corrupt, its 
primitive simplicity will disappear with its innocence, and all 
manner of despotic abominations be engendered. We have 
only to bring this to the test of actual history. ' At the period 
referred to,' says ' Perambulator,' ' the Christian Church, as an 
institution, had hardly begun to exist.' Consequently the be- 
nign plastic power of institutions in moulding a hierarchy out 
of the materials existing had not yet been exerted. This was 
a blessing reserved for a later generation. Well ; let him look 
at the Roman Catholic Church now, and for a succession of 
ages back, and his eye can feast upon the triumphs of ecclesi- 
astical institutions arrayed before him in bewildering profusion. 
With the lighted lamp of the ' Apocalypse Explained,' or ' Re- 
vealed,' he can remount through the ' dark backward and abysm 
of time,' and explore those ' chambers of imagery' where the 
schemes and machinations of priestcraft — designed to subject, 
not the Church only, but Heaven and the Lord himself, to 



108 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

utter vassalage and impotence — were concocted. He can de- 
tect the very 'cockatrice's egg' laid in the days of the apo-tles 
themselves, and incubated century after century by bishops and 
councils, till the entire papal brood of enormities was finally 
hatched out, causing the earth to groan under the curse of its 
plagues. These are the fruits of human institutions devised 
for the purpose of supplementing the Divine wisdom in the 
establishment of the Church. Protestant sects have fallen but 
little behind their Roman exemplar in this respect, as they are 
all ready to show a model system of Church polity and an ar- 
ray of most admirable institutions, just such as are demanded 
by the ' constitution of the human soul, the wants of our religious 
nature, and the exigencies of our social state.' 

"The moi-e I weigh the style of reasoning here adopted to^ 
nullify the force of the freely conceded fact, that priesthood 
and clergy were unknown to the primitive Church, ' the more 
the wonder grows' to find it resorted to by so intelligent an 
advocate of the New Dispensation. It would seem that he 
measures the prosperity and progress of the Church by the 
degree of its departure from the life, spirit, and genius of its 
purest epoch. The primitive Church of the apostles expanded 
into the towering hierarchy of Rome by the continual engraft- 
ing of new institutions upon her original simplicity, and yet 
'Perambulator' finds in this fact such evident tokens of ad- 
vancement and improvement, that he clearly prefers the order 
of things now existing to that which has been displaced. How 
far this is from beholding greater charms in the ' mother of 
harlots and abominations of the earth' than in that 'chaste 
virgin' wdiich the Christian Church was in her primitive days, 
I leave to be pondered by the writer himself. He speak-; of 
the more perfect structure and organization which the Church 
as an institution attains ' after centuries of trial and hard ex- 
perience.' Alas! this 'trial and hard experience ' has indeed 
been her lot, and a lot induced solely by those corruptions 
which the lust of dominion has entailed upon her. But it has 
been an experience which she could well have dispensed with, 
for it was the work of an enemy that has compelled her to ex- 
claim : ' Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth. 
The ploughers ploughed upon my back ; they made long their 
furrows.' 

" I am well aware of the reply wdiich ' Perambulator' will 
make to all this. These are not the institutions he had in 
mind in speaking of the development of the Church ; it was 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 109 

another kind entirely. He did not intend Romish institutions, 
but the better kind of Protestant ones. Why not, then, have 
specified distinctly Avhat institutions he did mean? Why leave 
us in the dark in a matter of so much moment? But the truth 
is, he has no right to evade the just consequences of his own 
logic. The priesthood for which he contends is the priesthood 
of the church as a visible institution. We have a right to look 
for that church where we can find it, and wc find it, with pre- 
cious little looking, in the Roman hierarchy, the most perfect 
specimen of the fruits of human institutions, as applied to the 
things of God, which the world has ever seen ; and we bid 
him heartily welcome to all the advantage his argument can 
derive from this source. 

"Another form of objection to the theory of my work now 
invites attention. ' We come next to notice what our friend 
evidently regards as the corner-stone of his theory — the alleg- 
ed absence of any proof in the inspired Word of a "ministe- 
rial or clerical class." ' That I should so regard the matter, 
when, to my mind, the question concerns mainly a divine and 
not a human institution, was perhaps not unnatural. It seems 
a very fair and rational inference that the Divine Wisdom 
knew best respecting its own ordinances, and that consultation 
was to be had immediately of the infallible oracle. But in re- 
plying to this portion of the argument, my opponent standing, 
as he says, on the New Church platform, feels inwardly ' com- 
pelled to set aside all his (my) quotations from the Epistles 
and Acts of the Apostles, as constituting no part of " Holy 
Writ." ' This of course he can do as a New Churchman, al- 
though, as he is well aware that the work makes no profession 
of having been written by a New Churchman or for New 
Churchmen, I do not perfectly perceive the fairness of cashier- 
ing a considerable part of the witnesses I have seen fit to sum- 
mon into court, especially as the judge and jury before whom 
the case was submitted to be tried, could have nothing to say 
against their character or competency. With the object which 
I had in view, it was perfectly legitimate for me to press into 
my service whatever I could find in the compass of the New 
Testament or the Old that bore upon the points discussed. 
How much or how little intrinsic authority I ascribed, in my 
own mind, to the Acts or Epistles, was immaterial to the scope 
of my argument, which was addressed to those who put all the 
books of the New Testament upon the same level as to au- 
thority. 

10 



110 • MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

"It will be observed, moreover, (hat my appeal to those writ- 
ings was made for the purpose of showing rather what they 
did not teach than what they did. My scope was altogether 
negative. Finding that the great mass of the Christian world 
had recourse to the Acts and Epistles as establishing the cleri- 
cal order, I ventured to submit all such passages to an exeget- 
ical process, with a view to evince that no such order was re- 
cognized by the sacred writers when their language was rightly 
interpreted. In doing this it was not necessary for me to 
regard them in any other light than as historical documents, 
affirmed on the one hand to contain certain averments, and 
denied on the other to contain any thing of the kind. And so 
in fact throughout. I do not go to the Scriptures to obtain 
evidence to establish any particular theory of Church order, 
but simply to show that the theory maintained by others on 
that subject is not supported by a just construction of the in- 
spired pages. I have nothing to build up ; my aim is solely to 
pull down what others have built up without any adequate 
foundation to build upon. The divine order will disclose itself 
as soon as human inventions can be got out of the way. The 
symmetry and beauty of the Lord's edifice will shine forth as 
soon as the scaffolding is removed. There is nothing for man 
to do in making order for the Church. That will take care of 
itself. He had much better turn his constructive faculty into 
other channels. 

" I trust, then, that upon this point I am distinctly under- 
stood. I go neither to the Scriptures nor to Swedenborg to 
establish therefrom any positive scheme of order or organiza- 
tion for the Lord's Church. I deal in simple negations. I 
deny the existence of any such distinction of grades and castes 
in the Church as ' Perambulator' and others maintain, for the 
sole reason that the evidence is lacking which is requisite to 
prove it. As to all apprehended evil consequences likely to 
arise from doing away these distinctions without substituting 
any thing else in their place, I feel no concern, no responsibility. 
on that score. I have but one question to ask respecting the 
grand ecclesiastical compound that stands before me ; — what 
part of it is the Lord's gold, and what part of it is man's dross? 
"When once satisfied on that head, I have nothing to do but to 
endeavor to precipitate and separate the one from the other. 

"What the reviewer says, therefore, respecting the com- 
parative authority of the teachings of Peter, James, and Paul, 
and of Swedenborg, is very little to the purpose. 1 do not re- 



OF PROF. GEOnGK BUSH. Ill 

Bort to the apostolic writing.-) as authority, but as testimony. A 
man pleads authority who has something affirmative to sustain. 
I have assumed a bare negative, and consequently have noth- 
ing to expect from authority. ' Perambulator' speaks about 
my ' anti-clerical theory.' Let him do so, provided he will 
bear in mind that my theory is nothing else than a denial of the 
truth and soundness of his. 

" But the reviewer thinks, moreover, that my Scriptural 
appeals are faulty on another score, to wit, that I leave the 
reader in the dark as to my true method of interpreting Scrip- 
ture. He is sadly at a loss to know whether I build my argu- 
ment upon the literal or the spiritual sense of the Word. 

"'Now we affirm that, inasmuch as neither times, places, 
persons, nor institutions are reflected on, or referred to in the 
spiritual sense of the Word, therefore no argument either for 
or against the Church as an institution, or a visibly embodied 
fraternity, can be drawn from this sense. The spiritual sense 
of the Word teaches nothing whatever in regard to institutions 
of any kind — nothing in regard to the civil or ecclesiastical 
polity of communities, any more than it does in regard to the 
science of astronomy, the creation of this natural world, or any 
other natural and visible fact. And since the question before 
us is one in regard to ecclesiastical polity — since it is con- 
cerning the pulpit as an institution, therefore the spiritual sense 
of the Word cannot be adduced either in confirmation of the 
theory we are combating, or as disproving it. It teaches noth- 
ing whatever in regard to it. This sense contains merely 
the laws of man's inner and spiritual life — the laws according 
to which our regeneration and consequent salvation are ef- 
fected. Any thing, therefore, in regard to visible institutions, 
can be gathered from the spiritual sense only by inference, and 
not by express teaching or precept, precisely as effects may be 
inferentially concluded from given or known causes.' 

" It would, doubtless, be a fair presumption that if I denied 
that the distinction of clergy and laity were taught in the let- 
ter of the Word, I should equally fail to recognize it in the 
spirit ; which is the fact. I do not admit the clerical doctrine 
to be taught by any sense of the Word, either literal or spirit- 
ual. My position here is the same with that which ' Peram- 
bulator' himself doubtless holds in respect to the resurrection 
of the material body. While there are many things in the 
compass of the Scriptures which apparently favor the theory 
of such a resurrection, yet as the New Churchman is taught to 



112 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

regard it as a falsity per se, so no amount of evidence can avail 
to persuade him that the Divine Word, in its true interpreta- 
tion, knows any thing of such a theory. 

" This may suffice on this head, but the writer's statement 
respecting the peculiar character and scope of the internal 
sense cannot pass unchallenged. This sense, he informs us, 
' teaches nothing whatever in regard to institutions of any kind 
— nothing in regard to the civil or ecclesiastical polity of com- 
munities.' This is a very sweeping assertion, and can only 
have been made in utter forgetfulness of the special interpreta- 
tion or unfolding of the internal sense of a large portion of the 
book of the ' Apocalypse.' Nothing is more distinctly taught 
in these explications than that Babylon denotes spiritually the 
religious system of Rome, as the dragon does that of the Prot- 
estants ; and that persons and institutions are recognized in 
the internal sense must certainly be admitted, if the truth of 
■what follows be admitted. See A. R. 799. 

* * * " I am desirous of doing justice to every part of 
1 Perambulator's ' argument. It covers a somewhat wide ground, 
and finds evidences in favor of its positions, both in the church 
on earth and the church in heaven. Having disposed of the 
terrestrial side of his reasoning, I now approach the celestial. 
That there are in heaven various administrations, ecclesiastical, 
civil, and domestic — is clearly taught in the revelations vouch- 
safed respecting that world. Divine worship, we are informed, 
exists there as well as here, and that externally the one is not 
very unlike the other. Angels as well as men have doctrines, 
preachings, and temples or churches. In their churches ai*e 
pulpits, and from these pulpits sermons are delivered from Sab- 
bath to Sabbath by certain preachers (not called priests) ap- 
pointed (constituti) by the Lord, while no others are allowed to 
teach in the temples. All this is undoubtedly so ; and we learn 
elsewhere from among whom these preachers are taken. ' Ec- 
clesiastical affairs in heaven are under the charge of those who, 
when in the world, loved the Word, and ardently inquired into 
the truths which it contains, not for the sake of honor or gain, 
but for the sake of the uses of life, both for themselves and 
others. These are in illustration, and in the light of wisdom 
in heaven, according to their love and desire of use; for they 
come into that light in the heavens from the Word, which is 
not natural there, as in the world, hut spiritual. These perform 
the office of preachers, and, according to Divine order, they are 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 113 

in superior places there who excel others in wisdom from illus- 
tration.' — R.$H. 393. 

" The question here arises, whether those who thus officiate 
as preachers, and who are said to be ' appointed by the Lord,' 
do in fact constitute a distinct and permanent class differing 
from the rest of the heavenly worshippers as do the clergy on 
earth from the laity. When it is said that they are ' appointed 
by the Lord, and are thence in the gift of preaching, (inde in 
dono prcedicandi),' we are not of course to understand an ex- 
ternal, formal, vocal call or designation to an office, such as 
takes place among men, but an internal influx or operation 
which sufficiently marks them out as the Lord's appointees for 
the service they are called to perform. They are those who, 
in the earthly life, were distinguished by a love for the Word, 
and an ardent spirit of inquiry into its truths, and receiving 
thence a peculiar illustration or light of wisdom, they were ren- 
dered eminently capable of instructing others in the divine 
arcana of revelation, and not only so, but of occupying a cer- 
tain rank of pre-eminence, (' superior places '), which naturally 
accrues to those who 'excel others in wisdom from illustration.' 
' In heaven all are as equals, for they love one another as broth- 
er loves brother ; and even one prefers another to himself, as 
he excels in intelligence and wisdom. The love itself of good 
and of truth, produces the effect that each subordinates himself, 
as it were, spontaneously to those who exceed him in the wis- 
dom of good and the intelligence of truth.' — A. G. 7773. 

" Now in this we recognize an order of things very similar 
to that of the primitive Christian church, where the main dis- 
tinction among brethren was made by the possession of certain 
charismata or spiritual gifts, which they held as a sacred de- 
posit, donation, or dotation from the Lord, to be imparted for 
the common benefit of the society to which they belong. 

" It will be observed that these preachers are such as in the 
world were drawn by a powerful attraction to the study of the 
Word for ends of use ; and this is evidently the state which 
induces illustration, and thus qualifies for instruction. But, 
obviously, illustration in the present life is not the privilege of 
a distinct and inaugurated class, but of all who are in a suita- 
ble state to receive it. Let the following citations be weighed : 

" ' Every one is illustrated and informed from the Word ac- 
cording to the affection of truth, and the degree of the desire 
thereof, and according to the faculty of receiving.' — ■ A. O. 
9382. 

10* 



114 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

" ' The Lord leads those who love truths, and will them from 
Himself; all such are enlightened when they read the Word, 
for the Lord is the Word, and speaks with every one according 
to his comprehension. Men are enlightened variously, every 
one according to the quality of his affection and consequent in- 
telligence. They who are in the spiritual affection of truth 
are elevated into the light of heaven so as to perceive the illus- 
tration.' — A. E. 1183. 

"'They are in illustration, when they read the Word, who are 
in the affection of truth for the sake of truth, and for the sake 
of the good of life : and not they who are in the affection of 
truth for the sake of Belf-glory, of reputation, or of gain.' — A. 
C. 9382, 10,548, 10,551, Index. 

" ' The divine truth is the Word, and they who are of that 
church (the New Church) are illustrated from the spiritual 
light of the Word by influx out of heaven from the Lord, and 
this by reason that they acknowledge the Divine (principle) in 
the human of the Lord, and from Him are in the spiritual 
affection of truth : by these and no others is spiritual light re- 
ceived, which continually flows in through heaven from the 
Lord with all ivho read the Word; hence is their illustration.' 
— A. E. 759. 

" 'Immediate revelation is not given, unless what has been in 
the Word, which revelation, as delivered by the prophets and 
evangelists, and in the historical parts of the Word, is such, that 
every one may be taught according to the affections of his love, 
and the consequent thoughts of his understanding. Illustration 
is as follows : light conjoined to heat flows in through heaven 
from the Lord ; this heat, which is divine love, affects the will, 
whence man has the affection of good; and this light, which is 
divine wisdom, affects the understanding, whence man has the 
thought of truth.' — A. E. 1177. 

"Here, then, we have the characteristics of the men who in 
this world are ' in the gift {charisma) of preaching.' It is this 
class of persons who, in an orderly state of the church, will be 
recognized and acknowledged as the divinely appointed teachers 
and preachers to minister truth to their brethren. It is clear, 
beyond dispute, that it is the same kind of spirits, or rather per- 
sonally the same, who perform the same function in heaven. 
And this accords with what our author elsewhere informs us. 
'It is to be observed that there is a church in the heavens as 
well as on earth, for there also is the Word ; there are temples 
also, and sermons delivered in them, and ministerial and prieatly 



OF PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 115 

offices ; for all angels there were once men, and their departure 
out of the world was only a continuation of their life ; therefore 
they are also perfected in love and wisdom, every one according 
to the affection of truth and good which he took with him out 
of the world.' (A. It. 533.) How clearly does this evince 
the identity of character which I have affirmed between the 
preachers and teachers of the lower and the higher spheres ! 
As the matron angels who assume the care of infants in heaven 
were those who tenderly loved infants on earth, and who thus 
find a ' continuation of their life,' or their life's love, in their 
new employment, so also the dominant love of the true teachers 
on earth finds scope in a kindred use in heaven. Not only is 
the function virtually the same, but the functionaries also are 
personally the same. But in neither case do I perceive the 
evidence that the exercise of this function lays a foundation for 
that official grade or caste which has so long been distinguished 
by the epithet clerical or sacerdotal. As I have reiterated so 
often, there may be a distinction of function without a distinc- 
tion of grade. 

" The concluding portion of ' Perambulator's ' critique aims 
to ' crush out' whatever little of life in my argument survives 
the assault thus far made, by rolling upon it a tremendous 
avalanche of authority drawn from Swedenborg in his direct 
teachings on the subject. ' Having endeavored to show how 
utterly at variance Avith the revealed order of heaven is the 
doctrine of this book on the subject of the ministry, we next 
proceed to inquire how far our friend's theory, viewed as a mat- 
ter of church polity here on earth, is sustained by the teachings 
of Swedenborg.' I have already adverted to the strangeness 
of the course adopted by the reviewer in arraigning my work 
before a New Church tribunal, when it contains not a sentence 
that makes it amendable to any such ordeal. I am forcibly re- 
minded of this procedure in entering upon the present depart- 
ment of his strictures, and the more especially as he now comes 
upon the very ground over which I have so often travelled 
argumentatively in the avowed character of a New Churchman, 
and on which I have first and last encountered about every 
passage whieh he now brings forward. 

" But although I cannot but feel that considerations urged 
from this source would have come with a much better grace at 
a much earlier day, yet I have no disposition to shrink from 
the test to which my sentiments are subjected. I am perfectly 



116 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

willing lo have them tried at the tribunal of the New Church, 
and say at once, let the appeal go forward. 

'• ' Now in all the writings of Swedenborg, we have never met 
with one solitary passage which looks in the direction of our 
friend's theory, much less with one which goes to sustain it. 
Where, in all these voluminous works of this heaven-illumined 
scribe, do we find the slightest hint at there being any thing 
wrong or contrary to true order in the popular distinction of 
clergy and laity? Where is it even intimated that this dis- 
tinction is " one of the first-born of falsities ? " So far from 
teaching or justifying any thing of this sort, Swedenborg uni- 
formly recognizes the existing distinction of the clergy and 
laity as perfectly proper, and a thing of true order.' 

" We have here the assertion emphatically made of a radical 
distinction between clergy and laity, being taught in the writ- 
ings of Swedenborg. This distinction supposes in its very 
nature that there are certain rights, prerogatives, and duties 
pertaining to the priestly order, which lie wholly without the 
range of the laical. It is impossible to hold or teach that dis- 
tinction consistently, without assigning to the one class a sphere 
of functions which is imperatively forbidden to the other. Now 
the conclusive reply to the position assumed above is, that 
Swedenborg, in the whole tenor of his teachings, adopts a style 
of speech utterly inconsistent with such exclusive rights and 
duties on the part of the clergy. He speaks in hundreds of 
passages of the duty of teaching and leading in the church as 
not confined to any particular privileged class, but as devolving 
upon all, without distinction, who are possessed of certain gifts 
and endowments qualifying them for the work. The fact on 
this head, as I shall soon show, is too plain and patent to be 
questioned for a moment, shutting us up irresistibly to the alter- 
native of fixing upon our author the charge of the grossest in- 
consistency, or of denying outright the position of the reviewer. 
It is a positive absurdity to suppose that a writer, who is not as 
demented as Swedenborg is often alleged to be, should in one 
breath predicate certain duties exclusively of a certain class or 
caste, and in the next speak of those duties as common to all 
in the church who may possess the requisites for performing 
them." 

In an endeavor to maintain his position, even on the 
authority of Swedenborg, the respondent cites numer- 

l urn mated scribe, 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 117 

which go to satisfy himself at least, that there is nothing 
in those writings, if consistently and honestly viewed, 
to gainsay or disapprove, but much to confirm and sup- 
port the evidences he had adduced from other sources. 

" Swedenborg speaks of the duties of the men of the Church 
in a vein entirely inconsistent with the theory of a privileged 
and consecrated order. His general style of discoursing on 
this subject, takes for granted the representative character of 
prophets and apostles, the bearing of which will be seen from 
what follows : 

'•' By the twelve apostles are represented and signified all in 
the Church who are in tmths derived from good; thus also, all 
truths derived from good from which the Church is ; and by 
each apostle in particular is represented and signified some 
specific principle. Thus, by Peter is represented and signified 
faith ; by James, charity ; and by John, the good of charity, or 
the good of love. ' — A. E. 8. 

" ' By the apostles are signified those who teach the truths of 
the Church: — A. E. J 00. 

" 'Apostles are so called because they are sent to teach, and 
to evangelize concerning the Lord ; hence it appears what is 
meant by apostles in the Word, namely, not the twelve apostles 
who were sent by the Lord to teach concerning Him and His 
Kingdom, but all those who are in the truths of the Church: 
—Id. 

" ' By the twelve disciples are represented all who are prin- 
cipled in goods and truths from the Lord: — A. C. 9942. 

" ' By apostles are not understood apostles, but cdl who teach 
the goods and truths of the Church.' — A. R. 79. 

"' Here then we have the representative bearing of the twelve 
apostles, and not a syllable occurs to show that they were in- 
tended to shadow forth a distinct order of men apart from the 
general brotherhood of the Church. It is palpable that they 
denote all those who, by being indoctrinated and principled in 
the goods and truths of the Church, are made capable of im- 
parling them to others, or, in other words, of becoming ' teach- 
ing ministers.' 

" The representative significance of prophets is equivalent 
to that of apostles, to wit, that of teachers of truth; and Swe- 
denborg remarks in regard to priests that their office was that 
of ' explaining the law divine, and teaching, on which occasion 
they were at the same time prophets: The work, therefore, of 



118 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

imparting doctrinal truth clothes one spiritually with the pro- 
phetic character. 

" ' To prophecy signifies to teach in the Word, because by a 
prophet, in the supreme sense, is understood the Lord as to 
the Word. Hence by prophesying is signified to teach the Word 
and doctrine from the Word' — A. E. G24." 

But we find we cannot extend this subject any further, 
having altogether exceeded the limits which it is proper 
for us to occupy. Our friend goes very largely into 
the consideration of every passage adduced by " Per- 
ambulator" from Swedenborg, and shows, at least to 
his own satisfaction, and with a great deal of fairness 
and plausibility, that the " clergy and laity" spoken of 
and recognized in terms of apparent approval by Swe- 
denborg, do not always pertain to the New Church, but 
to the Old ; that the influx of the Holy Spirit is equally 
with both, that is, " as well with the clergy as with the 
laity;" and that the "teaching ministers," of which so 
much account is made as peculiarly adapted to in- 
sinuate truth into the minds of the people, do not per- 
tain exclusively to a distinct class or grade, set apart 
from the laity and consecrated by peculiar rites, but to 
" men possessed of certain qualifications, enabling them 
to perform this use to better advantage than others, 
because from their larger acquaintance with the doc- 
trines, from their deeper study of them, and from their 
conjoining with their doctrines an exemplary life, their 
instructions would naturally have more weight." — 
P. 55. 

And finally he says: — 

" The only remaining point is one which does not admit of 
argument. It is a mere matter of opinion. It regards tiie 
fruits — the practical working — of the two theories which we 
respectively advocate. On the one side he sees nothing but 
confusion, disorder, and every evil work. While on the other 
he recognizes the happiest and most auspicious results to the 
interests of societies and the Church. Of course the discus- 
sion is a drawn game, so far as this point is concerned. He 
abides in one conclusion and I in another. I can only say that 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 119 

the fair presumption is, that that system of Church order which 
is intrinsically the truest, the most nearly conformed to the 
genuine divine model, will ever prove the most faultless and 
beneficent in its actual operation. It would be an irreverent 
reflection upon the divine wisdom to form any other judgment. 
The question, therefore, as a practical one, must after all he 
decided upon its merits as a theoretical one, and by that deci- 
sion I calmly abide." — P. G6.* 

The above will serve to show the earnestness as well 
as the intelligence of our friend's mind. He seems never 
to contend in argument for the sake of literary conquest, 
but to elicit truth or to point out error. His life was 
devoted to a search after truth, which, when found, like 
the treasure hid in the field, was prized above all other 
possessions. 

Once discovered and proved to be genuine, he cared 
not from what source he obtained it, or what value 
others might put upon it. To him it was worth more 
than fame, position, or friendship. Nor had the sneers 
of the world, who were not ready yet for its reception, 
and consequently viewed it as the product of a dis- 
ordered brain, any terrors to deter him from proclaim- 
ing it. Prejudice and previous conclusions were held 
in subjection to reason and judgment. If he saw new 
light in any quarter, however strange or opposed to his 
established theory, it was sure to undergo his searching 
investigation. 

The phenomena of Mesmerism and Spiritualism, so 

* Those who desire to see this question of the Priesthood and Clergy 
discussed in all its fulness, cannot do better than to procure and read 
the book which is so well reviewed in this article. We commend it 
with the most enthusiastic admiration. We see some things in it not 
properly correct according to our notions, but as a, whole it is most 
worthy. It is a perfect multum in parvo, and a death blow forever upon 
all systems of ecclesiastical hierarchy. Wc have been amazed at its con- 
clusiveness, and its historical and cxegetical accuracy. It is also a very 
interesting and a very instructive work. And although" treating of a theme 
which to many would appear at first dry and uninteresting, wc can assure 
the reader that be will find his interest increasing at every step of the in- 
quiry, and become more and more convinced of the radical importance of 
the subject. It is moreover a small book and not burdensome to the 
reader. — Ed. 



120 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

called, could not long escape such a mind. They early 
engaged his attention ; and the various published reports 
of his observations and opinions upon the subject, will 
perhaps afford as correct a view of these phenomena and 
their tendency as any elsewhere found. He believed in 
their spiritual origin, for he could account for them 
on no other hypothesis ; but did not fully comprehend 
the laws that governed them until he saw the subject 
explained by Sw'edenborg, who states it to be a normal 
or elementary constituent of the human mind, that per- 
mits an intercourse with its kindred spirit. While man 
remained in his original state of integrity, or before his 
" fall," this intercourse between the spiritual and natural 
world was the common privilege of all; and men, he says, 
" conversed with spirits as man with man," needing, con- 
sequently, no divine word or revelation for their spiritual 
instruction : But subsequently, as man inverted the order 
of his primitive being, by the indulgence of his sensual 
appetites, this privilege was mercifully interdicted by the 
Lord, inasmuch as evil influences would now flow in 
and increase evil desires; yet nevertheless, it was and 
still is permitted by the Lord in certain acts of his pro- 
vidence, although there is danger, in man's present state, 
in seeking knowledge from such sources. The Bible has 
been substituted for this medium of instruction, and to 
that the Lord would have us now refer. 

While upon this subject let us examine a little the 
rationale of Swedenborg's hypothesis. He states — what 
he claims to be confirmed by the divine Word — that man 
is a spiritual being as well as natural ; having a spirit- 
ual and a natural body, each possessing its own peculiar 
organism and attributes. The spiritual is immortal and 
can exist without the natural, but not vice versa. The 
natural is dependent upon the spiritual and becomes dis- 
organized and dissipated when the spiritual leaves it, as 
it does in what we term death. 

On this separation of the spiritual from the natural, 
the spiritual immediately takes up its abode in the spirit- 
ual world, where it becomes an angel or a devil, retain- 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 121 

ing the same form and faculties it possessed while in the 
natural world. 

This presupposes that spirit is a substance, as it could 
not otherwise assume shape and tangibility ; and this he 
declares to be the fact — that it is the most perfect of all 
substances, though not material, as we understand that 
term to apply to earthy matter. The real man, he con- 
tends, is an organic structure of ivill and intellect — a 
spiritual structure. The natural organism is an outbirth 
from the spiritual — a mere clothing or ultimation, in 
fact, of the spiritual in the natural, for uses while on a 
natural plane. He likewise states, that while dwelling 
on the natural plane or in the natural world, the spiritual 
or real man dwells also in the spiritual world, though 
unconsciously to his natural senses ; — that he associ- 
ates therewith spirits of a congenial nature, — becomes 
familiar with all surrounding objects; and when at 
death he is ushered into that world, he meets with 
familiar faces and scenery that lead him, for a time, 
to doubt his change of state. 

Now, if this be so, — and who would not rejoice to 
find it so? — it will not be difficult to imagine how de- 
parted friends, or angelic or demoniac spirits, can, if not 
prevented by extraneous hinderances, commune or com- 
municate with their co-spiritual brethren yet in the flesh. 
They dwell together in a spiritual world, and converse 
together in a spiritual language ; and all that is nec- 
essary to a consciousness of this fact, and to avail our- 
selves of a like privilege here on earth, is the open- 
ing of our natural senses to a perception of spiritual 
realities. 

This, however, is the work of the Lord. 

It will be seen that Swedenborg does not justify the 
" seeking after familiar spirits," neither did our friend, 
yet he would not ignore or deny the existence of a phe- 
nomenon that has startled half the world from its pro- 
priety, because it claims an origin hidden beyond the 
vision of the mere natural eye. 

Yfe are yet — - all of us — mere babes in wisdom. 

11 J 



122 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

After embracing these views, our friend felt it to be a 
duty he owed to himself, as well as to those who had 
confided in opinions he had previously advanced and 
advocated, to make a public statement of the reasons 
that had induced him to adopt "the system of religious 
doctrineand spiritual disclosure propounded by Sweden- 
borg," and consequently he issued a pamphlet of some 
80 or 100 pages, which has, we believe, passed through 
several editions in this country and in England. The 
title of the pamphlet was as follows: — "Statement of 
Reasons for embracing the Doctrines and Disclosures 
of Swedenborg." 

From this publication we propose to give extracts 
also, as exhibiting not only his method of inquiry, but 
likewise the subject-matter of investigation. 

He says (we quote from a London edition of 1847) : 

" The general laAv which governs the propagation of truth is 
doubtless of universal bearing and authority. Every man is 
bound by his allegiance to truth, to do what in him lies, con- 
sistently with his various relations in life, to extend and confirm 
its empire among men. Nor can it be doubted that the pressure 
of this obligation is always in proportion to his sense of the in- 
trinsic weight and importance of the truth which he holds. At 
the same time he is unquestionably to be governed by a wise 
discretion as to the time, place, and circumstances in which he 
shall witness his good confession. The line of policy, aiming at 
this end, which might be expedient, all things considered, for 
one, might not be expedient for another occupying a different 
position, and sustaining different relations. There may often 
be reasons operating with an individual to produce a change in 
his views of moral and religious truth, while yet there may not 
be a call upon him for an open and public avowal of those rea- 
sons: It is easy to conceive that in many cases the most effectual 
declaration of sentiment is made by the silent but expressive 
language of life — a life prompted and ruled by the convictions 
which may have established themselves in the mind. The case, 
however, is palpably altered when one has previously sustained 
a more public relation — when he has become somewhat known 
as the advocate of a different and opposite class of opinions — 
when he has occupied, in a sphere however humble, the post 
of a public teacher — when he has written hook? that have ob- 



OF PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 123 

tained a circulation more or less extensive, and which embody 
sentiments that have been modified by subsequent inquiries. In 
a case of this kind it can scarcely be deemed an impeachment 
of the decorous and modest estimate which every man is reason- 
ably expected to entertain of his own influence or standing in 
the community, if he presumes to satisfy t lie natural curiosity 
to become acquainted with the reasons which have led to a 
decided change in his views on important subjects, especially on 
the subject of his religious belief The fact of such an avowed 
change is a virtual appeal to those who are. still resting in his 
former opinions, to institute an inquiry into their grounds, as the 
reasons which have weighed with him, if sound, arc entitled to 
weigh with them also; and it may safely be presumed that a 
portion at least of his former readers and approvers, will he 
willing to bestow a candid consideration upon the arguments he 
has to proffer in behalf of his course. 

"I venture, therefore, to avail myself of the above considera- 
tions by way of apology, for presenting, through the present 
medium, somewhat of a formal and detailed exposition of the 
grounds on which I have been induced, after long, diligent, and 
serious investigation, to profess an unhesitating adoption of the 
system of religious doctrine and spiritual disclosure propounded 
.to the world by Emanuel Swedenborg. I am the more induced 
to this from the fact that I have been frequently solicited from 
different quarters, and by those who were pleased to express a 
deep anticipative interest in such an expose, to make the state- 
ment that I now propose. As the request is reasonable, I have 
determined to comply with it. It is a measure due perhaps to 
myself and to those who have hitherto cherished towards me a 
kindly personal regard, and who have been conscious of a more 
or less lively sympathy with the general views advanced in my 
different publications. From the narrow limits within which it 
is necessarily compressed, the sketch must inevitably be imper- 
fect, and in some cases perhaps scarcely just to particular points 
of doctrine or disclosure touched upon. But I may still hope 
to succeed in exhibiting, however briefly, a fair outline of the 
mental process which has resulted in my present convictions. 
Of the intrinsic sufficiency of the reasons cited, the reader will 
of course form his own judgment. In yielding my credence to 
Emanuel Swedenborg as a truly commissioned messenger from 
God to man, I claim to have been governed by evidence that 
not only has been satisfactory to myself, but by evidence that 
ought to satisfy me — evidence too thai will not fail to satisfy 



124 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

every truly candid and reflecting inquirer who will be at the 
pains of spreading it before him. But as I cannot transfer to 
another mind the influence of this evidence upon my own, so 
neither can I expect the above declaration to be viewed other- 
wise than as a simple expression of opinion, which may be true 
or not in any particular case. One thing, however, is certain — 
it is impossible for a fair verdict to be passed upon the issue ot 
my examination by any one who has not himself gone over the 
ground which it covers, and thus put himself in possession of 
the requisite data for forming a judgment. A conclusion can- 
not be pronounced false or fallacious but upon a full knowledge 
of all the just grounds upon which it is affirmed to be sound 
and true. . . 

« In the retrospect of the last five or six years of my moral 
and intellectual life, I am compelled to fix upon the date when 
I was first led to question the received doctrine of the Resur- 
rection, as the point from which my progress really began to 
tend towards the New Church, although then profoundly igno- 
rant of the fact. I had previously acquired no precise knowl- 
edge of Swedenborg's system, nor formed any intelligent esti- 
mate of his character. With the mass of the Christian world 
I had contented myself with the vague impression of his having 
been a man of respectable talents and attainments, but who 
had unhappily fallen into a kind of monomania, which made 
him the victim of strange delusions and dreams — the honest 
but real dupe of the wildest phantasies in respect to the state 
of man after death, and the constituent nature of heaven and 
hell. As to any thing like a consistent or rational philosophy 
of man's nature or the constitution of the universe, I should as 
soon have looked for it in the Koran of Mahomet or the Vedas 
of the Hindoos, or what I then deemed the senseless ravings 
of Jacob Belimen. Having never read his works, but in frag- 
mentary extracts, I was unprepared to recognize in him any 
thin" bevond the character of a well-meaning mystic, who had 
cm-en forth to the world a strange medley of hallucinations that 
could never be supposed to meet with acceptance, except in 
minds which had received some touch of a similar mama, and 
which had lost, if they ever possessed, the power of accurately 
discriminating between visions and verities. Such was my 
general estimate of the man up to the time when I had become 
settled in the belief that the current dogma of the resurrection 
of the material body was a gratuitous hypothesis equally uu.up- 



OF PROF. GKORGE BUSH. 125 

ported by a sound interpretation of Scripture, or by the fair 
inductions of reason. 

"Not many months elapsed before a copy of Noble's Appeal 
in behalf of the views of the New Church fell into my hands, 
by the perusal of which I was very deeply impressed. I was 
compelled to form an entirely new estimate of the man and of 
the system. I not only saw my own general views of the nature 
of the resurrection abundantly confirmed and illustrated, and 
planted upon the basis of a philosophy and psychology, which 
I still deem impi-egnable, but an exhibition also of the doctrine 
of the Lord's Second Advent which came home to my con- 
victions with a peculiar power of demonstration. I was struck 
too in the perusal of this work, with the Scriptural character 
of the evidence adduced in support, of the doctrines. I had 
previously no adequate conception of the amount of testimony 
from this source going to sustain the leading positions of. the 
New Church scheme, and to this hour I do not scruple to re- 
gard Noble's Appeal as an unanswerable defence of the system. 

"Hitherto, however, I had read nothing of Swedenborg's 
own writings, excepting occasional detached paragraphs. The 
' Heaven and Hell' shortly afterwards fell under my perusal. 
I read it with profound interest, but still with great abatements 
from a full conviction of its truth. I was rather disposed, on 
the whole, to admit the possibility of the psychological state into 
which Swedenborg declared himself to be brought, and which 
alone could make him cognizant of the realities of the spirit- 
world, because I saw that a similar immission into that world 
had been granted to the prophets and apostles, which showed 
that such a state could exist, and if it had once existed, I saw 
not why it might not again, provided sufficient reasons could be 
pleaded for it ; and the reasons alleged I felt to be sufficient, if 
they were but sound ; and this was a question that I was will- 
ing to consider, which I think the mass of the Christian world 
is not- But I found, notwithstanding, such a violence done to 
all my preconceptions of that world, that I doubted exceedingly 
the absolute reliableness of the statements. I could not help 
distrusting the clearness of his perceptions. I was continually 
haunted by the suspicion that his preformed ideas on the sub- 
ject had both shaped and colored his visions. This was more 
especially the case in regard to his descriptions of celestial and 
infernal scenery. I had the greatest difficulty imaginable in 
conceiving the possibility that any objects similar to those with 
which we are are conversant here should even appear to exist 
11* 



126 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

there. Again and again did I propose to myself the question, 
What kind of an entity is a spiritual house, animal, or bird — ■ 
a spiritual mountain, garden, grove, or tree — a spiritual cavern, 
lake, or stream ? — not dreaming that these things there exist by 
the very laws of the human mind, as outbirths or emanations 
of the interior spirit, and as living representatives of its affec- 
tions and thoughts. It did not then occur to me that a spirit 
dislodged from the body must, from the necessity of the case, 
be introduced into the midst of spiritual realities, and that these 
cannot in the nature of things be any other than what Swe- 
denborg describes them to be — that is, they must be what we 
should term mental creations or projections. A little deeper 
reflection would have then taught me, as it has since done, the 
truth of Swedenborg's statement, that thoughts are substances, 
and that to spirits that alone can be substantial which is spirit- 
ual, and consequently that alone can be real* We indeed, in 
common parlance, reverse these terms, and denominate that 
substantial which is material, and which comes under cogni- 
zance of the external senses. But the spirit, on leaving the 
body, leaves the region of dead matter, and comes into a sphere 
where itself and its emanations are the real substances or the 
substantial realities. Consequently what is here subjective be- 
comes there objective. One spirit's thoughts and ideas become 
to another spirit just as much a bona fide objective reality as 
the spirit himself; for how can we separate them? Is not a 
spirit spiritual, and is not his thought, like himself, spiritual 
also ? If so, does not the one come to the cognition of a fellow- 
spirit by the same means as the other? In the present world 
we can only perceive each other's spirits through the interven- 
ing medium of the body, except as it is manifested through 
written expression. But in that world the body is laid aside, 
and the cognizance of the interior being is comparatively im- 
mediate and direct. Why then shall we not perceive the 
thoughts as well as the subject from which they flow? 
i " The case may be illustrated from the phenomena of dream- 
ing. In this state the body with its sensations is dormant, yet 
the mind, which is really the man himself, who is an embodied 
spirit, beholds a world of objects which are to him, for the time 
being, real. Yet the things seen are of the same nature with 
the being who sees them ; they are an emanation from himself; 
and we have only to suppose two persons in this state to behold 

* See Swedenborg's Arcana Caelestiu, n. 3276. 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 127 

the objects of each other's dreams, to gain a very tolerable con- 
ception of the true rationale of the visual scenery of the other 
V;fe. In regard to their own dreams they see respectively only 
what is an oulbirth from their own interior's essence, and yet to 
their consciousness it is as if they saw with an eye objective 
realities as truly without them as are any of the objects of vision 
in the material world. So a man's image in a mirror or on a 
thick mass of fog, is at once extraneous to himself, and yet from 
himself; it can have no existence apart from himself, although 
it can be seen by another as well as by himself. If now we go 
a little further in our illustrative fancy, and imagine a person to be 
suddenly translated in a dreaming state into the spiritual world, 
we approximate still nearer an adequate view of the subject. For 
what is it that makes the transition but the very part of the man 
that dreams ? The body is left behind, and the spirit goes forth, 
and a spiritual essence should of course go into a spiritual world. 
What does it there meet with but beings like itself? — what does 
it there see but the things which are appropriate to spirit ? — and 
what are these, ontologically considered, but the things with 
which it was conversant a moment before in its dream? I do 
not of course say, that the visible aspect and character of the ob- 
jects seen are in the two states the same, for in the other world 
the external scenery is always a reflection of the internal states 
of those from whom it emanates. But my position is, that the 
mode of vision, and the nature of the substances with which it 
deals, are essentially the same. The spirit must necessarily find 
itself surrounded with scenery there analogous to what it sees 
here, because it carries it with it. Why not ? It was in the 
midst of objects appropriate to its nature while the body was 
dormant, and why should it find itself in a desert or a blank 
vacuity upon leaving the body ? Will it not be embosomed in 
the midst of forms and substances as real as itself? Let no one 
be stumbled by this use of the word substance. There are spirit- 
ual substances as well as material, nor have we the least hesita- 
tion in applying the word to ' the stuff that dreams are made of.' 
In like manner, the mental creations of spirits projected forth to 
the view of other spirits are to them as real, as veritable, as pal- 
pable, as a granite pillar is to us in our corporeal condition. 

" This I am aware will find with many but a slow admission 
on its first announcement, from their having been always accus- 
tomed to regard these manifestations of mind as simple acts, ex- 
ercises, operations, etc. But let the matter be pondered, and 
judgment rendered, whether the fact be not actually to. How 



128 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

can any thing exist which is not a substance? And how can any- 
thing that exists act but by the putting forth of its qualities and 
functions as a substance ? The sun acts by the emission of its 
light and heat. Are not the light and heat of the sun a part of 
its substance I A flower acts by sending forth a sphere of fra- 
grance. Is not the fragrance as real a substance as the flower, 
though vastly more rarefied and ethereal? So of the human 
spirit. A man's thoughts and mental images are the goings 
forth of the substance of his being; they are as substantial as 
his being; and if a spirit himself can be an objective reality to 
another spirit, his intellectual conceptions, for the same reason, 
must be equally objective. Consequently nothing more is needed 
for one's being introduced into the most splendid celestial scenery, 
than to find himself surrounded by the mental creations prompted 
by the pure and angelic affections of the countless multitudes 
which constitute that kingdom. These must be beautiful, be- 
cause they originate in a moral state of the inner man which can 
only be represented by objects of a corresponding character ; 
and that they are ?-eaI, arises from the nature and necessity of 
the case. Spiritual objects must be the real objects to a spirit. 
The infernal scenery, though a counterpart to this, depends upon 
the same law." * 

" A great advance was accordingly made towards a full recep- 
tion of the disclosures of Swedenborg, when the objections on 
this score were overcome. I saw that here was a rational and 
philosophical theory of the dominant conditions of the other life, 
and yet it was evidently a revelation of such a nature as to tran- 
scend the utmost grasp of the unassisted human faculties. The 
inference therefore was not only fair, but irresistible, that Swe- 
denborg was brought into a preternatural state in order to his 
being enabled to make it, and the admission of this was a vir- 
tual admission of the main item of his claim — the claim of hav- 
ing been divinely empowered to lay open the verities of man's 
future existence, and the essential nature of heaven and hell. 

" This primary fact then having been established to my own 
satisfaction, I was of course very strongly disposed to listen with 
the deepest respect to whatever other reports he brought from 
that world of mystery and of marvel, although I was still very 
far, as indeed I hope ever to be, from a blind surrender of my 
own judgment as to every point of his announcements. I was 
not yet prepared to receive the distinctive features of his theo- 

* See Arcana Ccelestia. n. 3485. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSIT. 129 

logical doctrines, and especially was I stumbled by bis unsparing 
critiques upon the doctrines of Justification by Faith alone, which 
I had been taught to regard as the grand tenet established by the 
Reformation, and which I supposed to be true of course, simply 
from its having been the re-ult of that struggle, which is so often 
spoken of as the, glorious Reformation from the errors of Popery. 
I had yet to learn that there were a great many things in the Ref- 
ormation that need much further reforming. So also in regard 
to the peculiar views advanced respecting the true nature of the 
Atonement, from which the current doctrine of Justification is 
inseparable. It was long before I could so entirely emancipate 
my mind from traditional sentiments,, as to embrace fully what 
I now regard as the far more Scriptural views of the New Church 
on that subject, to wit, that the atonement was what is signified 
by the word — reconciliation — God reconciling the world to 
himself, instead of reconciling himself to the world. But the 
great rock of offence with me was the interior or spiritual sense 
of the Word. This, I was strongly assured, even if there were 
to some extent a basis of truth on which it rested, was yet carried 
to an entirely fanciful extreme in Swedenborg's interpretation, 
and I had scarcely a doubt that if I ever fully accepted the system 
as a whole, it would still be with a reservation on this score. . One 
who is at all acquainted with the general scheme, will see at once 
from this, that I had thus far failed to apprehend the true genius 
of the Science of Correspondences, on which it rests, and from 
which it flows by inevitable sequence. The truth of this science, 
however, gradually loomed up more and more to view, as I be- 
come more clearly aware of the spiritual nature of man, and of 
the fundamental fact, that all natural things are pervaded, acted, 
moulded, vivified by the influx of spiritual causes. 

'' And here I am constrained, by fealty to truth, to acknowl- 
edge that the circumstance of my being brought, about this time, 
into contact with the phenomena of Mesmerism, had a most de- 
cided bearing upon the progress of my convictions, nor do I scru- 
ple to say that in all human probability I should never have come 
to the position I now occupy, had it not been for the overwhelm- 
ing evidence of truth derived from this source. It was not 
simply the fact that persons thrown into the mesmeric trance 
invariably made the same report, as far as their perceptions ex- 
tended, that Swedenborg does in regard to the laws and realities 
of the spiritual sphere, however ignorant beforehand of his dis- 
closures ; but the state itself, with its most obvious manifestations, 
was such as to afford a demonstration to the very senses, of the 



130 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

truth of his general assertions in respect to the principles and 
mode of spiritual existence in the other life. When I saw my 
own volitions controlling the muscular movements of another 
organization — when I saw the train of my own unuttered 
thoughts distinctly followed and read out to me — when I he- 
held even my own hodily sensations sympathetically trans- 
ferred to another person — I could no longer douht that a 
system was true which affirmed, in regard to the spiritual being, 
the principles that lay at the foundation of these phenomena, 
and which fully and satisfactorily explained them. The laws 
which Swedenborg lays down in regard to mental intercourse 
between spirits, are precisely the laws which are developed in 
the mesmeric manifestations, so that I hesitate not in the least 
to affirm, that if the latter be true, the former must be. 

" I am of course aware of the light in which this subject is 
viewed by the mass of intelligent men. I am not ignorant that 
they reject the whole matter as a vile medley of imposture and 
delusion, and that they will at once pronounce all asserted ex- 
perience in the premises as fantasy and fallacy. Such persons 
am welcome to their opinion. I know that I have not been de- 
ceived as to the facts averred. I know that the conceptions of 
my own mind have been reproduced in another mind without 
any outward signs, simply as the result of my coming into a 
peculiar communication with the mesmerized subject. I know 
too that this is the very result which one is taught to expect 
from what Swedenborg has revealed of the laws of man's spir- 
itual economy, as disclosed to him that they might be made 
known to the world. 

" I make the foregoing statement with the full belief, at the 
same time, that there are often delusions and deceptions, and 
often perhaps abuses, connected with the exhibitions of this re- 
markable power. But the question is not in regard to the uses 
made of it, but in regard to the truth involved in it. On this 
head alone do I now speak, and I do not hesitate to speak the 
language, not simply of belief, but of assurance. If I know a 
single fact in any science — in geology, chemistry, optics, or 
acoustics — I know the truth of the leading phenomena of 
Mesmerism, and I utter it too as my unwavering judgment that 
this class of facts is doing more at this moment, under the coun- 
sels of divine providence, to beget in thinking minds a convic- 
tion of the well-founded character of Swedenborg's claims, than 
any other mere human agency. I am, at the same time, well 
apprised of the prejudice which exists against these develop- 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 131 

ments as viewed in connexion with the doctrines and disclosures 
of Swedenborg. I know it is thought to be a perilous compro- 
mising these doctrines, to have them named in any kind of rela- 
tion to what is deemed by multitudes the charlatanry of mounte- 
banks and visionaries or the diablerie of infernal powers. But 
so long as I clearly perceive in them the showings forth of a 
grand psychological law of our being, implanted by the Creator 
himself, I cannot think or speak disparagingly of them without 
a bold and daring arraignment of the constitution which he has 
given to his creatures. ' Shall the thing formed say to him that 
lormed it, why hast thou made me thus ? ' Methinks the friends 
and adherents of the New Church, though not entering into it 
practically, ought to be truly thankful that they are enabled to 
appeal to such a convincing testimony of the truth of certain 
tenets of their creed, on which it is usually so difficult to pro- 
duce conviction with the mass of men. An immense advance 
is gained for truth when once the conviction takes deep root 
that there is a spiritual toorld, and that it is continually acting 
upon the natural world. The fact is no doubt vaguely admitted 
by the great body of Christians, but how practical becomes the 
assurance when we behold the influence of one spirit upon an- 
other, notwithstanding the interposing veil of the flesh ! Jf such 
effects are witnessed as flowing from spirits in the body, what 
stupendous agency must be exerted upon us by spirits out of the 
body! 

" But to return to my narrative. The progress of my inquiry 
soon brought me acquainted with another feature of Sweden- 
borg's system which took me altogether by surprise, as nothing 
of the kind was in the least anticipated. I allude to the philos- 
ophy which it involves. I had not the least conception that I 
was to find in it a profound scientific exposition of all the grand 
problems of the physical universe. I had begun to see indeed 
that it proffered the most satisfactory theory of the spiritual 
world, — that it lifted the curtain which ordinarily hides the 
sublime future from our view — but it was only by degrees that 
I perceived that it swept the whole rabge of being, and aimed 
at nothing less than to bring into entire harmony the Works and 
the Word of God — to wed Reason and Revelation — to estab- 
lish the unity of true Philosophy with true Faith. A deep im- 
pression on this score was received from the small treatise enti- 
tled the ' Athanasian Creed,' and this was vastly confirmed by 
the large work, ' The Divine Love and Wisdom,' which certainly 
contains more true science in respect to the constitution of the 



132 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

universe, that all the learned tomes of all the libraries of Chris- 
tendom. From this work I learned the grand doctrine of Life 

— that there is no such thing as created life, either in angels, 
men, animals, or plants — that on the contrary all life is con- 
tinual influx from the Deity, the only fountain of being. This 
I saw needed only to be perceived by physiologists to rectify all 
their conclusions in respect to the vital principle, as if it might 
be detected in the midst of the structures which it animates. 
There is no vital principle that lives in any corporeal form in 
any other sense than that in which the heat of the sun lives in 
the opening flower in the garden. Is there any heat in a plant 
except what comes from the sun, and yet can a plant live with- 
out the heat? As the structure of the plant is the created re- 
ceptacle for the inflowing and animating heat, so man's form is 
a created receptacle for the influent life proceeding from the 
infinite and uncreated Source of all life.* 

'• Yet no one will be apt, or able in fact, to receive any satis- 
faction from the work above-mentioned, unless he is willing to 
admit that the physical universe has had a spiritual origin. He 
must be able to conceive the possibility that what he might term 
the abstract principles of Love and Wisdom in the Divine Being, 
shall evolve themselves into ultimates or material embodiments 

— consequently that creation has by no means proceeded upon 
the ground of naked omnipotence, as is usually understood, or in 
other words, has resulted from a simple fiat of the Almighty, 
speaking entity out of non-entity, but by emanation from the 
very central source of existence. God has created the universe, 
not out of nothing, but out of himself, f 

"The mind, however, in pursuing this idea, is not to conceive 
of matter as having been first created in its grosser or solid 
forms. All the solid substances are resolvable back into gases, 
and of what further refinements these are capable — to what 
degree they may be attenuated and etherealized, or, so to speak, 
spiritualized — it is impossible to define. But it is not very difficult 
to conceive the truth of Swedenborg's doctrine on this subject 

— that the creation of the material universe has been effected 
by the gradual solidification of atmospheres emanating in the 
first instance from the Deity considered as a spiritual sun, and 
in the second from the natural sun, and which become more 

* See Sweden bora's True Christian Religion, n. 504. 

+ See Swedenborg's Divine Love and Wisdom, n. 55, 59, 283. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 133 

gross and dense the further they recede from the centre. * 
The expansion of this theory in its details would encroach too 
largely upon my allotted limits, but the perusal of the ' Divine 
Love and Wisdom,' especially in connection with De Quay's 
' Letters to a Man of the World,' will open to the reader a sub- 
lime chapter upon Creation, announcing views which all science 
is continually tending to confirm, for nothing is more obvious, 
than that the human mind is all the while advancing to the con- 
clusion, that the spiritual world is the region of causes, while the 
natural world is the sphere of effects. The point of contact be- 
tween these two spheres, and the nature of their mutual relation 
with each other, Swedenborg alone has fully developed. His 
revelations differ from all previous scientific inductions on this 
head, as guessing differs from demonstration. 

" Viewing the system as a whole, it is seen to be replete with 
a philosophy which covers the whole ground of its disclosures. 
It gives a rationale not only of all the physical facts, but of 
all the intellectual and moral doctrines, of which it treats. It 
satisfies the reason, not only as to its grand asserted truths, but 
as to the grounds and modes of those truths. It shows a how 
and a why for every thing. It develops the laws by which 
the most hidden operations of the spirit and the spiritual life 
are governed. It gives, if I may so say, the physiology of the 
mental and the moral of man's interior being. We are not, on 
this system, required to rest in spiritual phenomena, termed 
religious, as ultimate facts, capable of no rational solution, but 
the illuminated author lays a substratum in the principles of 
ontology itself for the most philosophical exposition of every 
thing embraced under the general head of exercises and acts. 
The truth of this philosophy will, of course, be admitted no 
further than it is understood, and it cannot be understood with- 
out study. This study, except to a very limited extent, has 
hitherto been withheld from the bare force of prejudice; and so 
it will probably continue to be for some time to come, but it 
will inevitably be exacted in the end. All enlightened inquiry 
is rapidly tending to concentrate itself to the point of the con- 
nexion between the spiritual and the natural world ; and when 
reason, left to its own powers, has reached its ultimatum in 
this direction, it will find itself, to its surprise, standing before 
the opened door of the Temple of Truth, with the Swedish 
seer in waiting to conduct it into the inner sanctuary. 

* Sec Swcdenborg's Apocalypse Explained, n. 1196, 1200 ; and Divine 
Love and Wisdom, n. 303. 

12 



134 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

" Having thus acquainted myself with these more outward 
and general characteristics of the system, and having become 
fully assured of its claims upon the most profound attention, 
I was prepared to appreciate somewhat more adequately its 
purely theological aspects. And here I was at once arrested 
by a new view of the central doctrine of God and the Trinity. 
Although I had long previously rested in the conclusion that 
the maintenance of the tripersonal distinction was not essential 
to the truth of Christ's supreme deityship, yet I was still con- 
scious of laboring under an inadequate conception of the true 
doctrine. While, on the one hand, I was absolutely certain 
that there was a sense in which Jesus was truly divine, and 
one with Jehovah, yet, on the other, I failed to perceive pre- 
cisely how this identity was to be apprehended, so that the ad- 
mitted Trinity should be consistent with the obvious unity of 
the Divine nature. The evidence of Scripture seemed conclu- 
sive, that Christ was a true and perfect man ; and if so I saw 
not how to avoid the inference, that he must have possessed a 
real human soul, as well as a real human body.* But inas- 
much as the evidence was equally clear of his being at the 
same time the subject of Divine attributes, I could only solve 
the problem of this duality of character by supposing a mysti- 
cal union of the interior Divine and human nature, in virtue of 
which he was denominated God as well as man ; nor was it till 
I became acquainted with Swedenborg's expose of the subject 
that I perceived that this view was in fact subversive of the 
true and essential divinity of Christ. For if he were a man 
precisely in the sense in which we are men — having a human 
soul as well as a human body — then there is no conceivable 
ground on which he could justly be denominated God, except 



* " I am conscious of a peculiar difficulty in framing my phraseology on 
tins head so as to convey the real meaning intended — a difficulty arising 
from the established sense of the word sod. In popular parlance this 
term denotes the most interior essence of man ; in Swedenborg's psychol- 
ogy it does not. According to him the soul itself is a form recipient of 
life from the Lord, which lives in the gross material body, and which is 
disengaged from it at death. It is the psychical part of the human organ- 
ism, and is still a recipient form when separated from the earthly envelope. 
In saying then that our Lord had not a true human soul, I would not im- 
ply that he had not a psychical element in his constitution, as a man, and 
pertaining to what Swedenborg calls the external man in contradistinction 
to the interna/. In my use of the term, I conform from expediency, to 
the popular use, intending t<> denote by it the most interior principle of 
being in the Divine Saviour." 



OF PROF. GEORGE BU3H. 135 

by the external adjunction of the Divine to I he human nature. 
But how would this differ, save in degree, from the union of 
the Divine with the human nature of Moses, or Daniel, or 
Paul ? And however intimate we may suppose this union to 
be, yet who would not be horrified at the idea of either of 
these individuals being denominated God ? Yet I beg it may 
be considered in what possible mode of existence Jesus could 
be Jehovah, if he really possessed a true human soul or spirit, 
as well as a true human body. Could he have been God un- 
less his most interior essence, which is usually understood by 
the soul, were Divine ? In other words, must he not have 
had a Divine spirit or soul enveloped in a human body? lor 
the inmost of every living being is his spirit. Now this inmost 
principle in Jesus, Swedenborg affirms, was the essential Deity, 
and for this reason it was, that while he had a human mother, 
he had no human father. The spirit — the interior esse of 
the being — is, according to him, in all cases of generated ex- 
istence, from the father, and the body from the mother.* The 
soul of Jesus was the indwelling Jehovah himself, and upon 
no other ground does it appear how he could truly and pro- 
perly he termed God. Swedenborg, therefore, speaks of the 
incarnation as that ' by which Jehovah sent himself into the 
world,' and if the above view be correct, this is in fact implied 
in its being said that the Father sent the Son into the world.f 

" Assuming, then, that Jesus in his inner essential nature is, 
in the absolutest sense, Jehovah, then, as there is but one Je- 
hovah in the universe, all the attributes and perfections per- 
taining to Him must pertain to Jesus also. If there is a 
Trinity in Jehovah, there must be identically the same Trinity 
in Jesus. But this cannot be supposed to be a Trinity of 
persons without a total subversion of all rational ideas of per- 
sonality. If there is but one Divine essence and that be desig- 
nated by the word Jehovah, it may be pronounced impossible 
to conceive that essence as constituting, in any proper use of 
language, more than one person. Be it observed, however, 
that we are not denying the fact, nor objecting to the state- 
ment, of a distinction — a threefold distinction — in the God- 
head, the nature of which will soon be more fully explained. 
We deny simply the propriety of applying the term persons to 
express this distinction. 

* See Swedenborg's Conjugial Love, n. 206; True Christian Religion, 
n. 82, 92. 

t Sec Athanasian Creed, n. 12. 



136 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

" But however variously conceived — with whatever crudities 
or confusion mixed up in the popular belief — there is still a 
threefold distinction — a Trinity — in the Godhead. What is 
its nature ? How is God three while at the same time he is 
one? An attempt to give an intelligible answer to this ques- 
tion does not involve the assumption of being able to fathom 
the infinite depths of the divine existence. There will always 
be a mystery in the theme which will baffle the powers of 
every created intelligence. ' Who by searching can find out 
God ? Who can find out the Almighty to perfection ?' Still 
an approximation may be made towards truth on this head. 
Somewhat of a consistent and fair view of this grand tenet of 
the Christian's faith may be gained ; and I would first state it 
under the illustrative form which Swedenborg so frequently 
employs — that of the obvious trinity in man, to be recognized 
in the distinction of soul, body, and operation or proceeding 
energy* Here is clearly one being — one person — and yet 
a threefold distinction perfectly consistent with that oneness. 
Transfer this conception to the Deit} r , allowing at the same 
time for the difference between the finite and the infinite. Un- 
derstand by the Father the primary ground of the divine being, 
or what Swedenborg terms the divine Esse, which is the divine 
Love — by the Son the divine Truth or Wisdom, which he 
terms the divine Existere — and by the Holy Spirit the pro- 
ceeding act or energy flowing forth from the united Esse and 
Existere, or Love and Wisdom, just as the energy or activity 
of a man is an emanation from his conjoint soul and body. 

" I am well aware, that this will have, at first blush, the air 
of something transcendental and mystical, yet I think that upon 
a little reflection it will redeem itself from the charge. Swe- 
denborg informs us, from the illumination vouchsafed him in 
the spiritual world, that Love, Affection, Feeling, is the under- 
lying ground of all existence — that Love and Life are almost 
convertible terms — that whether in regard to creatures or the 
Creator, Thought or Intellect, or, if you please, Wisdom or 
Truth, is a mere form of Affection, and though they co-exist 
together, and cannot be viewed apart from each other, yet in 
the order of our ideas we may conceive of one as being funda- 
mental to the other, just as we may conceive of tlie heat of the 
sun as being primary in respect to its light, though we cannot 
think of the sun without embracing both its heat and light in 

* Sec Swedenboig's Athanasiau Creed, n. 17. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 137 

our conception. In fixing our meditations upon God we are 
evermore to conceive that the divine Love is the Esse of his 
being and the divine Truth or Wisdom the Existcre thence 
derived — the one indicated by the Father, the other by the 
Son, while the Holy Spirit is the Proceeding Sphere from both 
combined — the whole, however, still constituting but one per- 
son ; for it would be just as reasonable, that is to say, unrea- 
sonable, to predicate three persons of a man because of the 
threefold distinction of his attributes, as to predicate Triper- 
sonality of Jehovah on the same grounds.* 

"I know of no more important principle ever advanced to 
the world than the one above-mentioned, to wit, that Thought 
in all beings is a resultant of Love or Feeling — that a man 
could not possibly have a thought if there were not some latent 
love to prompt it. If this be true, all s) r stems of mental philos- 
ophy or theology which make Intellect the primary principle 
of man's being, and Feeling, Emotion, or Passion, a certain 
form or quality of Intellect, must be radically erroneous. The 
direct reverse is the fact. And that such is in truth the gen- 
eral intuition of the human mind, when not obscured by theories 
of psychology, may readily be inferred from the universal ac- 
knowledgment, that a man is as his heart is, and his heart is 
his love. All are ready to grant that a man's head may abound 
in errors, yet if his heart is right his state is, on the whole, 
good. His character is determined by the state of his heart, 
implying that his love is the very groundwork of his being, and 
the ultimate truth will undoubtedly prove to be, what Sweden- 
borg affirms, that this holds of his physical as well as of his 
spiritual life.* The beai-ing of this principle on the point be- 
fore us will appear in what follows. 

" In the economy of the redemption Jehovah becomes incar- 
nate, not the so-called second person of the Sacred Trinity, in 
contradistinction from the other two. Yet, in the nature of 
the case, when it comes to the matter of manifestation, it is the 
Divine Truth rather than the Divine Love, which assumes 
form and makes itself visible on the plane of humanity; be- 
cause it is a general principle flowing from the constitution of 
being, that Love is manifested or becomes objective in the form 
of Truth ; in other words, that Affection puts itself forth in the 
form of Intellect. Whatever be the form of Thought, Love is 



* See Swedenborg's Brief Exposition, n. 33. 
t See Swedenborg's Arcana Ccelcstia, n. 6872. 

12* 



138 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

always latent in it, and constitutes its essential life, for Love is 
the esse of which Thought is the existere. Take a familiar il- 
lustration. A friend at a distance feels an affection for an- 
other friend, and wishes to manifest it. As, however, he cannot 
reach him, as to his interior consciousness, by the simple exer- 
cise of the feeling, he sits down and writes him a letter.* The 
letter is a manifestation of the heart's affection of the writer. 
He embodies his love in written language, and gives it expres- 
sion, visibility, access. It thus becomes the word (logos) to his 
affection. The internal emotion is latently present as the life 
of the written thought, and only by means of the thought does 
it come into manifested form. In like manner Jehovah, in 
coming down to our level, and entering into the ultimates of 
humanity, comes in the form of the divine Truth, or the divine 
Logos, or Word made flesh. In that form the divine Love 
or the Father is inwardly but not visibly present, just as the 
heat of the natural sun, which corresponds to love, is present 
in its light, which corresponds to truth.f Is it not clear that 

* See Swedenborg's Apocalypse Revealed, n. 200. 

t " It is indeed to be admitted that a further effort of mind is requisite 
to conceive the divine Truth as coming forth from its purely abstract 
form, and embodying itself in human nature. This is Avhat Swedcn- 
borg denominates the Lord's passing ' from first principles to last ; ' and 
though we must confess to the extreme difficulty of grasping the process, 
yet the fundamental idea may perhaps be illustrated by what we have al- 
ready said of the rationale of creation, and by other parallel facts. There 
is doubtless in man's creations a certain image of those of God. In 
every construction of human art, for instance, a mental conception really 
ultimates or embodies itself in a. material form. A man invents and fab- 
ricates a machine. That machine was in his mind as an archetypal truth 
before it was formed by his hand, and it was there as a substance, though 
a spiritual substance, like every thought. As foreign as it may be from 
our ordinary conceptions, we know not how to resist the conviction, that 
the ideal prototype of a steam engine, for instance, is as real a substance 
as the engine itself, or the boat or car to which, when materialized, it is 
attached. When the machine is actually constructed, the original idea, 
or truth, is merely clothed with a material body. With man the process 
of thus clothing it is by the agency of his hands. But suppose him to be 
a spirit, and to have control over the material elements by means of the 
wiil, and we can see how the primary mental truth, which is the real soul 
of the construction, ultimates or embodies itself in the engine, tliat is, 
' passes from first principles to last.' It is doubtless in a mode some- 
what analogous to this that the material world is elaborated from the 
spiritual, and this may give us a feeble conception of the mode by which 
'the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us,' though the comparison, 
in reference to its subject, is necessarily low and grovelling. But on 
such a sublime theme we can only aspire to an approximation towards 
the truth. If the progress of science should vet discover that every thing 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 139 

the sun is objectively manifested to us by its light? — and yet 
the esse of the sun, which is its heat, is continually more or less 
present with its existere, which is the light. So our Lord nays 
that ' he is in the Father and the Father in him ' — that ' he 
that seeth the Son seeth the Father also' — and the apostle, 
that ' the fulness of the godhead dwells in him bodily.' This 
then may afford us some measure of the illustrative light in re- 
ference to the great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the 
flesh, and especially as to the mutual relation, in the Divine 
Being, of Love and Wisdom, on which the distinction of Father 
and Son is founded. We recognize this distinction as real, but 
not personal. The Father and the Son constitute no more two 
persons, than do the soul and body in man. As to the Holy 
Spirit, this being but the emanating or proceeding sphere of 
the divine Love and Wisdom, can no more be deemed a person, 
than the effluent sphere of a man can be deemed a person sep- 
arate from the man himself. A man's sphere is as little dis- 
tinct from his real personality as the fragrant sphere of a spice- 
tree is, in its origin, a distinct entity from the tree itself. 

" Have Ave not then in all this a view of the sacred Trinity 
at once intelligible, and at the same time free from the objec- 
tions rightly urged against the commonly received doctrine ? 
It is a Trinity of person, and not of persons. As the human 
mind is constituted, a Trinity of persons is to all practical ap- 
prehension a Trinity of beings, or in other words a Trinity of 
Gods ; and such a conception of the divine nature must inevita- 
bly mould into conformity with itself the whole scheme of re- 
demption. Consequently we see not how it is possible to gain- 
say the truth of what Swedenborg affirms in regard to the preva- 

material is finally resolvable into the light and heat of the sun, which is 
not unlikely, the main idea will be yet further confirmed, for Swedenborg 
has shown us that the transition from the light and heat of the natural 
sun to that of the spiritual sun is by no means violent, as the one corre- 
sponds to the other, by the law of cause and effect. But spiritual heat is 
the divine Love, and spiritual light is the divine Wisdom, or Truth; and 
we may suitably conclude the present note by the following extract touch- 
ing the relation of Truth to creation : ' Scarce any one knows at this 
clay that there is any power in Truth, for it is supposed that it is only a 
word spoken by some one who is in power, which on that account must 
be done ; consequently the Truth is only as breathing from the mouth, 
and as sound in the ear ; when yet Truth and Good are the principles of 
all things in both worlds, the spiritual and tiic natural, by which princi- 
ples the universe was created, and by which the universe is preserved; 
and likewise by which man was made ; wherefore these two principles 
are all in all.' — True Christian Religion, n. 224." 



140 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

lent theology of the Christian church. ' It is to be observed, 
that in the Apostles' Creed it is said, / believe in Godthe Father, 
in Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost ; in the Nicene Creed, 
I believe in one God, the Father, in one Lord Jesus Christ, and 
in the Holy Ghost, thus only in one God ; but in the Athana- 
sian Creed it is, In God the Father, God the Son, and God the 
Holy Ghost, thus in three Gods. But whereas the authors and 
favorers of this creed clearly saw that an idea of three Gods 
would unavoidably result from the expressions therein used, 
therefore, in order to remedy this, they asserted that one sub- 
stance or essence belongs to the three: but still there arises 
from thence no other idea, than that there are three Gods unan- 
imous and agreeing together: for when it is said of the three 
that their substance or essence is one and indivisible, it does 
not remove the idea of three, but confounds it, because the ex- 
pression is a metaphysical one, and the science of metaphysics, 
with all its ingenuity, cannot of three persons, each whereof is 
God, make one ; it may indeed make of them one in the con- 
fession of the mouth, but never in the idea of the mind. That 
the whole system of Christian theology at this day is founded 
on an idea of three Gods, is evident from the doctrine of jus- 
tification, which is the head of the doctrinals of the Christian 
Church, both among Roman Catholics and Protestants. That 
doctrine sets forth that God the Father sent His Son to redeem 
and save mankind, and gives the Holy Spirit to operate the 
same: every man who hears, reads, or repeats this, cannot but 
in his thought, that is, in his idea, divide God into three, and 
suppose that one God sent another, and operates by a third. 
That the same thought of a Divine Trinity distinguished inlo 
three persons, each whereof is God, is continued throughout 
the rest of the doctrinals of the present church, as from a head 
into its body, will be demonstrated in its proper place. In the 
meantime consult what has been premised concerning justifica- 
tion, consult the system of theology in general and in particu- 
lar, and at the same time consult yourself, while listening lo 
sermons at church, or while praying at home, whether you have 
any other perception and thought thence resulting, than of three 
Gods; and especially while you are praying or singing first lo 
one, and then to the other two separately, as is t he common prac- 
tice. Hence is established the truth of the proposition, that the 
whole system of theology in the Christian world at this day, is 
founded on an idea of three Gods.' — Brief Expos. 34, '■'>'>. 
"It will be at once obvious, that upon the basis laid by Swe- 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 141 

denborg, the entire economy of redemption is a totally differ- 
ent thing from that which has so long been held forth to the 
world as the true scheme of the Scriptures. The Atonement 
of Christ, according to him, is not a vicarious sacrifice, concen- 
trated in the simple passion of the cross, and made by one per- 
son of the sacred Trinity to appease the wrath or satisfy the 
justice of another. As the Father and the Son are really one 
person, there can be no claims of justice or of any other attri- 
bute predicable of the one party which does not equally hold 
in regard to the other. There cannot possibly be any such 
conflict in the demands of the divine perfections as is implied 
in the prevalent theology of the church. It is the whole Deity 
which comes into incarnation with a view to save the whole 
human race, so far as it can be done without infraction on the 
freedom of the creature. There is no real wrath on the part 
of the Deity to be propitiated, for wrath is not predicable of a 
Being whose very essential nature is Love and Mercy ; and if 
there were, how could the sufferings of a divine Personage, 
endured by himself alone, be an atonement or expiation in be- 
half of sinners ?* If a subject has offended a sovereign, and 
that sovereign submits to the loss of one of his eyes, how is 
that a satisfaction to the claims of justice? Do the sufferings 
of innocence cancel the debt of guilt ?f The truth is, the cur- 
rent theory is built upon a view of the divine perfections which 
implies such a vai'iance between them as is utterly irreconcila- 
ble with the essential unity of the Godhead. If the Son and 
the Father are essentially one, there is as much of wrath in 
the Son as there is in the Father, and as much of clemency in 
the Father as there is in the Son. They are perfectly at one 
in this respect, because they are one, and the alleged atonement 
made for sinners is a real at-one-ment, effected by the Lord's 



* See S.wedenborg's Apocalypse Revealed, n. 658. 

t " Yet I beg it may not be inferred from this that the system in question 
docs not recognize a moral antagonism between the state of the natural 
m.-in and the attributes of the pure and holy Jehovah, one which must be 
removed before the soul can come into beatific conjunction with heaven. 
Evil and good are opposed to eacli other in their very nature, and to the 
apprehension of evil, f^ood arrays itself in the aspect of wrath, just as the 
sun's light appears hostile to a diseased eye, though intrinsically as be- 
nignant to it as to a sound eye. The state of which this is the result 
must be rectified before man can come to the enjoyment of peace with 
God; and Swcdenborg incessantly teaches that this rectification could 
never have taken place but upon the ground of Jehovah's becoming in- 
carnate, and accomplishing what he did in our nature." 



142 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

Divine Humanity between the sinning creature and the pure 
and holy Creator. By the light of the New Church teaching 
on this subject, we become aware of the huge inconsistencies 
of the current doctrine of Christendom touching this central 
credendum of revelation. With some exceptions the advocates 
of this doctrine profess with the mouth that God is one — that 
Jesus and Jehovah are the same — and yet, from the imagined 
exigencies of the scheme of redemption, they have introduced 
a view of the Trinity which is completely subversive of that 
unity. And when the charge to this effect is preferred against 
it, the reply is usually made in the form of a foreclosure on the 
ground of ignorance. Let the question be proposed to a strenu- 
ous asserter of what is termed the orthodox creed on this head, 
how it is, precisely, that three persons are consistent with one 
essence, and how it is that the penal sufferings of the Son avail 
to turn away the ire of the Father from the heads of the guilt}-, 
and he will reply that he does not know — that it is an un- 
fathomable mystery — that it was never intended to be known 
— that it is the height of presumption to think of requiring 
any thing beyond the simple declaration of the fact on the divine 
authority — a fact which faith is implicitly to receive, and about 
which reason is to ask no questions. 

"Now the receiver of Swedenborg's revelations has no hesi- 
tation to say, that he recognizes no claim as being made by the 
inspired Word on his blind credence of any truth announced 
therein. He knows nothing of this absolute subjection of his 
understanding to his faith. Though he arrogates to himself no 
peculiar perogative of intelligence above his fellow-men, yet 
he has an inward assurance that every doctrine propounded to 
his reception comes to him accompanied with a rationed evi- 
dence of the truth, — or in other words, that it establishes itself 
upon the rationed plane of his mind — and while he does not 
assume to grasp the interior nature and essence of divine veri- 
ties — while he holds to a needed illustration of his reason in 
conversing with spiritual themes — he yet feels authorized to 
look for an intelligible sense in which the Lord's being and 
working are announced to him. Such a sense he recognizes 
in what is affirmed of the economy of redemption. 

" On the prevalent system, the doctrine of vicarious atone- 
ment is central, cardinal, supreme ; and out of it grows by 
legitimate issue the accredited dogma of Justification by Faith 
alone. The efficacy of the atonement is secured, it is said, by 
the divine purpose in reference to a select (elect) number of the 



OP PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 143 

human race. Viewed in themselves they have no anterior 
claims to this merciful designation, nor have they any power of 
their own to avail themselves of the provision made for their 
salvation ; for by reason of their depravity they are dead in 
trespasses and sins, and a dead man can no more move 
his little finger than his whole body.* In this emergency, the 
discriminating grace of Heaven visits and regenerates them. 
Tliey are enabled to believe on Christ set forth as a propitia- 
tion, and by this act of believing they are justified in the sight 
of God, and the law being satisfied by what Christ has done 
and suffered in their behalf, has no further demands upon them ; 
they are henceforth fixed in a state of salvation, and at what is 
termed the last day, they are not judged according to works, but 
acquitted according to faith. It is indeed affirmed in this con- 
nection that such a justification will be attended by a good life, 
but then the good life does not enter in as a constituent element 
into the real grounds of justification and salvation ; they are 

* " Here again I would put in a protest against an unwarrantable infer- 
ence. No man, of whatever school in theology, has ever given a more 
debasing view of our fallen nature, or insisted with more emphasis upon 
the entire depravity which has come upon it, than Swcdenborg. 'Every 
man is born,' says he, 'of his parents info the evils of the love of self 
and of the world. Every evil which by habit lias contracted as it were a 
nature, is derived into the offspring; thus successively from parents, from 
grand fathers, and from great-grandfathers, in a long series backwards. 
Hence the derivation of evils at length become so great, that all of man's 
proper life is nothing else but evil. This continued derived evil is not 
broken and altered except by the life of faitli and charity from the Lord. 
Man continually inclines and lapses into what he derives hereditarily 
from his parents. Hence he confirms with himself that evil, and also of 
himself superadds more. These evils are altogether contrary to spiritual 
life; they destroy it; wherefore unless man, as to spiritual life, is by the 
Lord conceived anew, born anew, and educated anew, that is, is created 
anew, he is damned, for he wills nothing else, and hence thinks nothing 
else, but what is of hell.' — (Arcana Calestia, n. 8550-52.) But though 
sunk in spiritual death, man is not bereft of freedom of will, and conse- 
quently is not absolutely passive in regeneration. He still has power to 
compel himself to abstinence from particular acts of evil as sins against 
God, and when this is the case the divine good of the Lord flows in, and 
as he yields to the influx he continually receives new accessions of life 
and strength, by which he is eventually enabled to ' work out his salva- 
tion.' ' It is a law of order, that as far as man accedes and approaches 
to God, which he should as altogether from himself, so far God accedes 
and approaches to man, and in the midst of him conjoins Himself with 
him.' As to the precise point, however, at which spiritual life begins, lie 
would no more think of defining it, than one would of discriminating the 
exact moment when the light of the morning first begins to break iu upon 
the previous darkness." 



144 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

rather a factitious adjunction to his faith, than a vital cowjuno 

tion with it. A man is not saved for his good works, hut in 
spite of his evil works. Having no merits of his own, lie re- 
ceives by imputation the merits of Christ, and standing com- 
plete in his righteousness is adjudged to the fruition of eternal 
life. 

"To this view of the scheme of redemption the receiver of 
Swedenborg's teachings has serious objections. He objects to 
it as presenting the scheme mainly as an outward act — as a 
forensic transaction — as a procedure of an objective rather than 
of a subjective character. It so far, therefore, in his estimation, 
overlooks the internal structure, nature, and wants of the human 
soul. It does not provide, in a clear and intelligible manner, 
for the deepest demands of the moral state of the sinner. It 
sets before him an ah extra work of atonement, which, while it 
is affirmed to satisfy the absolute will of Jehovah, does not sat- 
isfy the demands of internal consciousness. That men are actu- 
ally regenerated, sanctified, and saved under this form of faith, 
they do not doubt ; but such results they regard as rather not 
■prevented, than directly promoted, by it. 

"What then, it will be asked, as contrasted with this, is the 
doctrine of the New Church on the same head ? We answer, 
Salvation is heaven. Heaven is not a locality into which one 
enters as he does into a room when the door is open. It is an 
internal state which enters into him. Heaven is love, and love 
is life, and life is character. It is a state wrought in the indi- 
vidual by actuality, and not merely reckoned to his account 
by putative transfer. It is utterly impossible that one can en- 
joy the happiness of heaven without possessing the character 
of which heaven essentially consists. This character cannot 
be imparted to him by the simple virtue of any forensic ac- 
crediting o*r legal estimation. lie must actually possess, in 
propria jyersona, the very righteousness by which he is saved, 
and consequently by which he is justified. The sinner can by 
no possibility be saved except by a process by which he ceases 
to be a sinner. This process, according to the New Church 
theology, is wrought in tlu? person of the sinner. According to 
Old Church theology, it is wrought out of him, in and through 
another being, and the benefit of it becomes his by imputa- 
tion.* Here is the grand point of divergency between the sys- 
tem of Swedenborg and that of the prevailing church. Still, 

* See True Christian Eeli-'ion, n. 640, G4l. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 145 

we repeat, we do not charge the current system with overlooking 
the element of life in the matter of salvation. We do not say 
that it does not insist upon it as a necessary appendage to faith. 
But what we do say is, that it is not a fundamental and indis- 
pensable constituent of that internal state or character upon 
which the salvation of the sinner depends. It is, as the school- 
men say, a conditio cum qua, but not a conditio sine qua non. 

" Now to this, which we have given as the established dogma 
on this point, we oppose not only the express and reiterated 
declarations of our Lord, that judgment is to proceed, and 
destiny be determined, according to life, but also the absolute, 
inevitable, and eternal necessity of things. We contend that 
a sinner cannot be saved, even by omnipotence itself (though 
this is not the sphere of omnipotence), but upon the ground of 
the actual personal possession of that internal principle of good 
in which the very essence of salvation consists. At the same 
time we allow, on the ground of Swedenborg's teaching, no 
original merit to the sinner saved which is to be regarded as the 
effective procuring ground of his acceptance ; for he has no good 
of his own ; all is by influx from the Lord, who is Goodness 
itself and Life itself. Yet it is a goodness in the man, and not 
out of him, in virtue of which he is saved, for his salvation is 
the very goodness itself of which he becomes the subject. Tins 
goodness, moreover, could never have been acquired but by the 
mediation of the Divine Redeemer. There was an absolute 
necessity for the intervention of the God-man Mediator, in 
order to the putting away of the obstacles which opposed the 
recovery of an apostate and ruined race to a new union with 
Him whose ' favor is life and his loving kindness better than 
life.' In no other way could be effected that infusion of divine 
good, righteousness, and peace which constitute the element of 
salvation. The dominion of hell was the impediment to be 
conquered. But the dominion of hell was the active agency of 
malignant evil spirits continually bearing down, by their infer- 
nal influx, upon the souls, and at length even upon the bodies, 
of men, and threatening to engulf them in a common perdition. 
According to the eternal laws of order, Jehovah could approach 
neither to the evil spirits of earth or hell without the assump- 
tion of the Humanity, and the consequent creation of a me- 
dium of communication, '' The reason,' says Swedenborg, 'that 
redemption could not have been performed but by God incar- 
nate, that is, made man, is because Jehovah God, such as he is 
in his infinite essence, cannot approach to hell, much less enter 
13 



146 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

into it ; for he is in the purest and first things. Wherefore 
Jehovah God, being in himself such, if he should only blow 
upon those who are in hell, He would kill them in a moment. 
He therefore acts upon all spirits according to their nature, and 
in a way to preserve inviolate their moral freedom. By as- 
suming our infirm humanity he put himself into a condition 
that enabled him to receive their temptations into himself, and 
to combat and overcome them in a mode somewhat analogous, 
though on an infinitely grander scale, to that by which the 
Christian combats and overcomes them in himself. The sum 
total of these conquests constituted his redemption-work. Every 
successive victory of this nature was at the same time a step 
in the glorification of his natural Human principle, till at last 
this process was consummated by the passion of the cross, 
which was the final act of temptation and suffering, when the 
entire Humanity became glorified, or, as we may say, divimfied, 
just as, on a smaller scale, every spiritual triumph of a Chris- 
tian o-oes in a degree to the sublimation and spintuahzation 
even of his grosser nature, the final result of which may be 
seen in the glorified bodies of Moses and Elijah when they ap- 
peared with the transfigured Saviour on the holy mount. He 
is indeed unconscious of this inward process going on within 
him during life, nevertheless the fact is so, and the result of it 
is, that in the end his ' vile body is fashioned like unto Christ s 
glorious body.' 

" Now this we learn from Swedenborg was the sum and sub- 
stance of what Jehovah Jesus accomplished in the work of 
man's redemption. It was to afford a medium by which a new 
communication of spiritual life could be vouchsafed to degener- 
ate man, while at the same time no infraction should be made 
of his essential liberty as a free agent. ' Man's body,' says 
Mr. Noble,-' operates as a medium by which Ins soul acts upon 
persons and things around him; and by which, again, impres- 
sions from these are conveyed to his soul ; thus, man's body is, 
in both respects, the medium of communication between his 
soul and things around it. Just so the Glorified Humanity of 
Jesus Christ is the medium by which the Divine Essence acts 
upon man, and by which, again, man has access even to the 
Inmost Divine Essence. In both respects, then — as convey- 
in" the "ifts of salvation from God to man, and as affording 
access to God — the Glorified Humanity of Jesus Christ is the 
medium of communication. The analogy is most perfect and 
complete. As man's soul, without his body, cannot communi- 



OF riiOF. GEOkGE BUSH. 147 

cate with the world ; and objects in the world could not make 
their state, their presence, nor even their existence, known to 
his soul — the body being a medium expressly formed for com- 
munication with the world, and given to the soul for that pur- 
pose ; so, when man had sunk into the natural state in which he 
now exists, the pure and unclothed Deily could no longer oper- 
ate upon him in a saving manner, and he could have no access 
to, no adequate communication with, the Author of his exist- 
ence. Therefore Jehovah, out of his infinite love to mankind, 
clothed himself with Human Nature; and having glorified that 
Human Nature by wonderful divine means, so as to make it 
the express image, and adequate, instrument of action, of his 
Essential Divinity, he has provided an eternal Medium of com- 
munication between himself and his creatures. The operation, 
then, of his Glorified Human Form, which has become the In- 
vestiture, and, as it were, the very Body, of the Godhead, in af- 
fording to maa the means of approaching to Gad, and in con- 
veying the gifts of salvation — the communications of the Holy 
Spirit, from God to mem — is what is meant by the Scripture 
doctrine of the mediation of Jesus Christ' 

" What, therefore, is usually termed the influences of the Holy 
Spirit, which are the fruits of the Saviour's mediation, and sent 
forth for the regeneration and sanctification of men, is in fact 
the operation of that divine sphere of life and spiritual energy 
which continually proceeds from his glorified Humanity, and 
while it draws the soul by hallowed attraction to its source, is 
at the same time continually conquering the opposing spheres 
of hell, and, operating by charity and faith, is planting the spirit 
of heaven still deeper and deeper in the heart. Man is thus 
regenerated more and more, and his full recovery to eternal life 
secured, not by the impided benefits of a plan of redemption 
accomplished without himself, but by the experienced virtue of 
Union to the Divine Humanity of the Lord, which was assumed, 
not to pacify the wrath of the Father, but to express the infinite 
love of the whole Deity to his fallen creatures. The work by 
which this was accomplished, far from being confined to the 
simple death on the cross, was extended through the whole 
earthly life of the Redeemer, and the real efficacy of his media- 
tion was witnessed rather by the blood of Gethsemane than by 
that of Calvary, for that was extorted in his spiritual combats, 
which were more especially the essence of his redemption. 

" I regret that I am precluded by my necessary .limits 
from entering more largely into the details of Swedenborg's de- 



148 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

velopments of the foregoing and all its cognate subjects. It 
would be easy to show that in point of logical consistency, con- 
formity to scripture, and practical power, no system of doctrine 
could ever stand a more rigid test. But though I am well aware 
of failing to do justice to the theme by such a meagre sketch, 1 
shall still cherish the hope that my lack of service in this re- 
spect may be supplied by an actual resort, on the part of my 
readers, to the body of the writings themselves, winch, by un- 
folding the deepest arcana of man's spiritual nature, shed a 
flood of li-ht upon the mass of Christian doctrines which in- 
volve them. The completest compend of the system is to be 
found in the work entitled 'True Christian Religion.' lam 
forced, however, to say, that this work will inevitably have a 
very singular and perhaps incredible air to any one who is not 
prepared to admit the psychological postulates upon which it is 
built It "oes all along upon the assumption that man is a 
spirit clothed with a body — that he is a man rather from his 
spirit than from his body — that his two great principles are 
Will and Understanding, the one the correlate of Good, the 
other of Truth — that in his interior being he is even now a 
denizen of the spiritual world and in perpetual and vital con- 
nection with its numberless tenants, both good and evil — and 
that the fact is possible, and, in Swcdenborg's case, real, ot an 
open and sensible communication with that world, in virtue ot 
which its laws and phenomena may be and have been disclosed 
to us All this is undoubtedly contrary to the prevailing im- 
pressions and belief of the world, and therefore an immense 
barrier is interposed to the ready reception of the doctrma 
views propounded by the herald of the New Church. _ But 
considering the magnitude of the interests at stake, it is not 
improbable that in the Divine Providence some overwhelming 
demonstration shall be given, from some other source of the 
truth of the psychology of Swedenborg's system, which shall 
ere lon<* compel the attention of thousands to his writings, 
whereas 5 they are now comparatively so few, that a < child may 
count them.' Time will tell. , 

« And here the transition is easy to Swedenborg s doctrine oj 
the soul and the state after death, which holds so prominent a 
place in his system. Of a great multitude of subjects it can 
properly be said that they commend themselves to the reflect, ng 
mind. They can hardly be expected to be duly appreciated ex- 
cept by those who are accustomed to ponder deeply and seriously 
upon the various themes that address themselves to their inter- 



OF PROF. GEORGE- BUSH. 149 

est. But to the right entertainment of the subject of the future 
life and destiny of man, it would seem that this condition could 
scarcely be deemed requisite. This is a subject of such univer- 
sal and commanding import to every human being, (hat the 
natural impression would be that no one can be indifferent to it 
without foregoing his claims to rationality. If a man thinks at 
all, it is difficult to conceive of his not thinking upon this. If 
he is assured that he shall die, can he but be solicitous to know 
whether he shall live again ? And if assured, on competent 
authority, that he shall, what more natural, more spontaneous, 
more imperative, than that the conditions of his future being 
should press themselves upon his anxious thoughts ! Should 
we not suppose that ' every third thought would be his grave,' 
together with the momentous realities that lie beyond it? If 
man is indeed, as Milton describes him, a being 'of large dis- 
coui-se looking before and after,' we could scarcely resist the be- 
lief, that when once assured even of the possibility of informa- 
tion on this head, he would as it were rush to the oracle to have 
his absorbing problems solved and his restless heart relieved of 
its load of uncertain forebodings. That there is, however, not- 
Avithstanding all a priori grounds for the deepest emotion and 
the intensest study on this theme, a comparative mental quies- 
cence and apathy in regard to it, is beyond question. The fact 
is doubtless mainly to be accounted for on the ground of an 
inveterate and deep-seated impression, that no further light is 
to be anticipated in respect to the mysteries of a future life 
than is afforded by the general and vague intimations of Holy 
"Writ. The volume of inspiration teaches clearly the doctrine 
of immortality, and gives assurance of a heaven and a hell. 
But it discloses little of the nature of either. It goes into no 
minute detail. It does not, with distinct enunciation declare 
the inseparable connection, according to the fixed laws of our 
being, between the essential character of our present life, and 
the form of destiny in which it issues in another. We are 
indeed taught that 'he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh 
reap corruption, and that he that soweth to the spirit shall of 
the Spirit reap life everlasting.' But this announcement leaves 
much in the dark as to the exact nature of the relation involved 
and as to the specific qualities of the several conditions of the 
good and bad in another world. Yet upon these points the 
mind, when left to its own impulses, solicitously craves illumi- 
nation. It is prompted to say of this knowledge, 'Who shall 
go up for us to heaven to bring it unto us ? ' All other knowl- 
13* 



150 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

edge sinks into insignificance when compared with this, and yet 
the practical conviction of the Christian world undoubtedly is, 
that it is unattainable — that we are hopelessly shut up to the 
scanty measure of light afforded by the letter of the sacred 
writings. 

"It becomes, then, a question of serious bearing, whether 
there be in fact a possibility of higher and more definite attain- 
ments on this score. Is it conceivable — is it true — that the 
Most High himself has, through a chosen instrument, lifted the 
curtain of futurity from before us? Has the interdict been re- 
moved ? Has the ' eternal blazon ' been made ? Has access 
been granted to the sanctuary of the secret which lies beyond 
the grave ? Who can be indifferent to the answer that shall be 
returned to these questions? For myself, I am satisfied the 
answer is to be given in the affirmative, and I would fain, if 
possible, make the reader participate in my assurance. 

"The claim advanced is doubtless a high one — one too that 
must naturally be expected to encounter the force of a host of 
adverse pre-conceptions ; and we readily admit that there are 
certain conditions on which alone such a claim can be listened 
to for a moment. 

"1. The alleged disclosures must not conflict with any thing 
revealed in the Scriptures. They may possibly go beyond the 
clear and distinct revelations of the inspired Word, but, if true, 
they cannot be in any thing contrary to them, for this would be 
to make Divine Truth contradict itself. Yet it is no disparage- 
ment to Scripture to maintain that God may grant us light 
beyond the measure of its literal sense. This can be denied 
only on the ground of his own express declaration that he has 
precluded himself from augmenting the knowledge of his crea- 
tures on the subject of the future life. But no evidence of this 
can be produced. He is free to grant higher illumination if he 
sees adequate reason for it ; but it is certain that a subsequent 
revelation from him can never be inconsistent with a prior. 

" 2. They must proceed upon the ground of an adequate mo- 
tive and end, on the part of God for bestowing them. Purposes 
worthy of infinite wisdom and benignity must be clearly seen 
to be answered by a special intervention of this nature. It is 
inconceivable that it should occur unless there were a nodus 
dignus vindice — an occasion sufficient to warrant a departure 
from the ordinary method of his Providence in imparting in- 
struction on this head to the world. Such an occasion Sweden- 
borg affirmed to exist in the occurrence of the Lord's Second 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 151 

Advent, in connexion with these revelations. This event, which 
is altogether spiritual in its nature, was to be the ushering in of 
'A new dispensation, termed in the Scriptures the New Jerusa- 
lem, the sublime ends of which could not be attained without a 
new influx of light in reference to the intimate connexion of the 
natural and spiritual world, and a development of the laws by 
which character elaborates destiny. A just estimate of Sweden- 
borg's claims can therefore only be formed in connexion with the 
settlement of a great question of Prophecy — the nature, epoch, 
and circumstances of the Second Coming of Christ, and also of 
the Last Judgment, with which it was to be associated. Investi- 
gation on this point is earnestly solicited. 

a 8. They must be such as to be entirely consistent xoith xoliat 
toe know to be the nature and constitution of man. They must 
recognize as true all the fundamental laws and principles of our 
economy, established by the testimony of consciousness or by the 
inductions of true science and philosophy. This lays a founda- 
tion for internal evidence of the truth of the alleged disclosures, 
and in the present state of the human mind this species of evi- 
dence is indispensable. 

" 4. The scope and tendency of such revelations must be de- 
cidedly and pre-eminently practised. They must not be given 
solely for the purpose of gratifying curiosity, or ministering to 
vain speculation. This were an end unspeakably below what 
can be believed of an All-wise Being. In his estimate Truth 
itself is ever subordinate to Goodness, and the legitimate bear- 
ing of every alleged revelation from him upon life, is the ulti- 
mate criterion of its claims. 

" The question then arises whether the asserted disclosures of 
Swedenborg answer to these conditions, and whether the evi- 
dence of their truth from other sources is adequate to meet the 
demands of the intelligent and reflecting inquirer. In the at- 
tempt to answer this question I shall rely mainly on the pre- 
sentation of his statements relative to the grand point at issue 

— the nature of the soul and its state after death, leaving it to 
produce its own effect, according to its own evidence, on the 
mind of the reader. In doing this it will of course be under- 
stood that I am not exhibiting the conclusions of a philosopher 

— the fruit of his own researches and reasonings — but the 
oracles of a Seer. It would be easy, however, to show that 
even in the former character they are entitled to the prolbund- 
cst consideration of all enlightened minds. The evidence is 
ample that apart from supernatural endowments do man has 



152 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

ever preferred stronger claims to be listened to with respect in 
any results he may have announced, either of physical or meta- 
physical research. His claims in this character are beginning 
to be acknowledged, as his scientific labors make themselves 
known to competent judges, who are more and more astonished 
that a luminary so resplendent should have remained so long 
clouded, although in the judgment of his adherents he has 
merely been ' dark through the excess of light.' His natural 
have been eclipsed by his supernatural endowments. An as- 
serted illuminism transcending the native sphere of the human 
faculties, has stifled the credit of stupendous powers within that 
sphere, which is now slowly but. surely being rendered by the 
inevitable onward march of Truth, carrying the awards of Jus- 
tice in its hand. . 

« I repeat, however, that in displaying Swedenborg s doctrine 
of the soul, I am submitting to the judgment of reason what 
reason itself could never have reached by its unassisted powers, 
and I do it in the confident persuasion that whether true or false, 
the disclosures in question present a miracle equally great. For 
it requires but a knowledge of their true character lor any one 
to be convinced that no human intellect, under any kind ot ex- 
altation, could ever have fabricated the scheme from its own re- 
sources ; and as to its being the creation of a distempered brain, 
it is so profoundly philosophical — so nicely discriminative — 
so harmoniously consistent — so consecutive and logical in its 
arguments — so confident in its appeals to the consciousness of 
reason — so wanting in every feature indicative of a mind un- 
ited— that the idea of its supernatural origin is much the 
mo°t credible of the two. But the judgment of the reader will 
justly demand the grounds of my own. 

"I remark then that the foundation fact of all Swedenborg s 
disclosures relative to the future life is, that man is a spirit 
clothed with a body, and that the form of the body is derived 
from the form of the spirit — that the soul or spirit, indepen- 
dent of the body, is the true and real man — that the tenement 
of the body, laid aside at death, is never resumed — that when 
the separation between the two great elements of our nature 
takes place, man emerges into the world of spirits in a perfect 
human form, with all the grand distinguishing powers and attri- 
butes of his being as a man wholly retained* As the sensitive 

* See Swedenborg's Last Judgment, Part ii. n. 36 : Heaven and Hell, 
a. 453. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 153 

principle when in the body was spiritual and not material, so the 
true man, when detached from the body, retains all his sensitive 
faculties, only heightened, refined, and made vastly more ex- 
quisite either for pleasure or pain. 

" The following extracts from different parts of his writings 
will place Swedenborg's positions on this head distinctly before 
the reader : 

" ' With regard to the soul, of which it is said it shall live after 
death, it is nothing else than the man himself, who lives in the 
body, that is, the interior man, who by the body acts in the 
world, and who gives to the body to live ; this man, when he 
is loosed from the body, is called a spirit, and appears then al- 
together in a human form, yet cannot in anywise be seen by 
the eyes of the body, but by the eyes of the spirit, and before 
the eyes of the latter appears as a man in the world, has senses, 
namely of touch, of smell, of hearing, of seeing, much more ex- 
quisite than in the world ; has appetities, cupidities, desires, 
affections, loves, such as in the world, but in a more excellent 
degree ; thinks also as in the world, but more perfectly ; con- 
verses with others ; in a word, he is there as in the world, in- 
somuch that if he does not reflect upon the circumstance of his 
being in the other life, he knows no other than that he is in the 
world, which I have occasionally heard from spirits; for the 
life after death is a continuation of life in the world. 

" ' This then is the soul of man which lives after death. But 
lest the idea should fall upon somewhat unknown by using the 
term soul, in consequence of the conjectures and hypotheses con- 
cerning it, it is better to say the spirit of man, or if you prefer 
it the interior man, for it appears there altogether as a man, with 
all the members and organs that man has, and it is also the man 
himself in the body ; that this is the case, may also be manifest 
from the angels seen, as recorded in the Word, who were all 
seen in the human form, for all the angels in heaven have a 
human form, because the Lord has, who after his resurrection 
appeared so often as a man. That an angel and the spirit of a 
man is a man in form, is because the universal heaven from the 
Lord has [a tendency] to conspire to the human form, whence 
the universal heaven is called the Grand Man : and because the 
Lord lives in every individual in heaven, and by influx from the 
Lord the universal heaven acts upon every individual, therefore 
every angel is an image thereof, that is, a form most perfectly 
human ; in like manner man after death. All the spirits, as 
many as I have seen, which are thousands and thousands, have 



154 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

been seen by me altogether as men, and some of them have said 
that they are men as in the world, and have added, that in the 
life of the body they had not the least belief that it would be so ; 
many have expressed concern, that mankind are in such igno- 
rance concerning their state after death, and that they think so 
vainly and emptily concerning the soul, and that most persons 
who have thought more deeply on the subject, have made the 
soul into somewhat as it were a subtile aerial, which idea must 
needs lead into that insane error, that it is dissipated after death.' 
— A. G. 654, 655. 

" ' The generality do not apprehend that spirits and angels 
have sensations much more exquisite than men in the world, 
viz., sight, hearing, smelling, somewhat analogous to taste, and 
touch, and especially the delights of the affections ; yet, if they 
had only believed that their interior essence was a spirit, and 
that the body, together with its sensations and members, is 
adapted only to uses in the world, and that the spirit and its 
sensations and organs are adequate to uses in the other life, in 
this case, they would come of themselves, and almost of their own 
accord, into ideas concerning the state of their spirits after death; 
for, in such a case, they would think with themselves, that the 
spirit of each is the very man himself who thinks, and who lusts, 
who desires and is affected; and, further, that all the sensitive 
principle which appears in the body, is properly of the spirit, 
and belongs to the body only by influx ; and these things after- 
wards they would confirm with themselves by many considera- 
tions, and thereby, at length, would be delighted with the things 
appertaining to their spirit, more than with the things appertain- 
ing to their body. In reality, also, this is the case, that it is not 
the body which sees, hears, smells, feels, but its spirit : where- 
fore, when the spirit is stripped of the body, it is then in its own 
sensations in which it had been when in the body, and this in a 
more exquisite degree ; for corporeal things, as being respective- 
ly gross, rendered the sensations obtuse, which also became still 
more so in consequence of being immersed in earthly and world- 
ly things. This I can positively affirm, that a spirit has more ' 
exquisite sight than a man in the body, and also more exquisite 
hearing, and, what will seem surprising, a more exquisite sense 
of smelling, and especially of touch ; for spirits see each other, 
hear each other, and touch each other. He who believes in a 
life after death, might also conclude this from the consideration, 
that no life can be given without sense, and that the quality of 
the life is according to the quality of the sense ; yea, that the 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 155 

intellectual principle is nothing but an exquisite sense of interior 
things, and the superior intellectual principle, of spiritual things ; 
hence, also, the things of the intellectual principle and of its^ 
perceptions are called the internal senses. With the sensitive 
principle of man immediately after death, the case is this : as 
soon as man dies, and the corporeal parts grow cold, he is raised 
up into life, and, on this occasion, into the state of all sensations, 
insomuch that, at first, he scarcely knows any other than that 
he is still in the body; for the sensations in which he is, lead 
him so to believe; but Avhen he perceives that he has more 
exquisite sensations, and this especially when he begins to dis- 
course with other spirits, he then takes notice that he is in an- 
other life, and that the death of his body was the continuation 
of the life of his spirit, etc., etc. But I am aware, that the 
things which have been heretofore said, will not be believed by 
those who are immersed in corporeal, terrestrial, and worldly 
things, that is, by such of them as hold those things for an end ; 
for these have no apprehension of any thing but of what is dis- 
sipated by death. I am aware, also, that neither will they be- 
lieve who have thought and inquired much about the soul, and 
have not, at the same time, comprehended that the soul is man's 
spirit, and the spirit is the very man which lives in the body ; 
for these cannot conceive any other notion about the soul, than 
that it is some principle of thought, or of flame, or of ether, 
which only acts into the organical forms of the body, and not 
into the purer forms which are of the spirit in the body ; and 
thereby, they conceive it to be such a principle as is dissipated 
with the body ; and this is especially the case with those who 
have confirmed themselves in such notions by views of the sub- 
ject puffed up through the persuasion of their own superior 
wisdom.' — A. G. 4622. 

"'That man is a spirit as to his interiors has bee.n proved to 
me by much experience. To adduce the whole of it would fill 
many pages. I have conversed with spirits as a spirit, and I have 
conversed with them as a man in the body. When I conversed 
with them as a spirit, they knew no other than that I my- 
self was a spirit in a human form as they were. Thus my in- 
teriors were visible to them, for when I conversed with them 
as a spirit my material body did not appear. That man is a 
spirit as to his interiors is manifest, because after the separa- 
tion of the body, which takes place at death, he still lives as 
before. It has been given me to converse with almost all the 
deceased whom I ever knew in the life of the body, with some 



156 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

for hours, with others for weeks and months, and with others 
for ) r ears, that I might be confirmed in this truth and testily it 
to others/-— H. § K 437. 

" Here then is Swedenborg's philosophy of the Soul. It is 
no other than the man himself 'in the essential elements of his 
nature, to which the material body is a mere temporary ap- 
pendage, designed to enable it to accomplish its appropriate 
uses in a material world. The soul lives as the pervading ani- 
mating principle in every the minutest part of the body, and, 
to use a homely comparison, is to it what the concealed man 
within is to the automaton chess-player. And what is there, 
I may ask, in this view to which the most enlightened mind 
can object ? "Whether tried by the touchstone of reason or 
revelation, does it not commend itself by its intrinsic rationality 
and probability ? And are we not conscious of a secret intui- 
tion that it must be so from the very laws of our being? When 
we think, without reference to a creed, of our departed friends 
and relatives, do we not instinctively think of them as existing 
as perfect men and women, and in the form which they wore on 
earth? And in this fact do we not read the triumph of inborn 
perception over outward dogmatic teaching ? Death, according 
to this view, is merely the laying aside of the garment of flesh, 
from which man emerges to his true and only resurrection — 
the resurrection of the spirit into the world of spirits. 

'And would we, if we could, constrain 
Their unbound spirits into bonds again ? ' 

Of what conceivable use can be the mouldered fabric of dust 
to the emancipated soul? Why should its vesture of light 
ever be exchanged for the dull robe of quickened clay? It lias 
a body suited to the sphere in which it dwells. Does it need 
another, any more than the winged papilio needs the reptile 
tenement in which it grovelled on the earth ? How dreary, 
compared with this, is the view which has obtained currency 
in Christendom, that man exists as a pure formless spirit in 
the invisible woidd for an indefinite tract of ages, till at what 
is called the last day — the final consummation — the disem- 
bodied spirit is again to be united with the laid-off tabernacle 
of flesh, and in this body to abide forever ? This is doubtless 
the prevalent idea of the resurrection and the future life, re- 
ceived from the apprehended import of the Scriptures, when 
yet the Scriptures are capable of an interpretation that fully 
accords with Swedenborg's statements on these points. The 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 157 

process of fail' exposition brings us to the same results with 
those of the actual asserted revelations made to him in that 
world where the truth is realized in existent facts. The phe- 
nomena which he beheld in that world are the very ones 
which he ought to have beheld, provided the Scriptures in 
their true meaning are true.* 

" We have in the above extracts statements upon which we 
are called to pass judgment. They are either true or false. 
If true, they establish Swedenborg's general claim to supernat- 
ural illumination. If false, it is still a matter to be accounted 
for, as is the case in a hundred similar relations of his, how a 
mere dreaming fantasy should assume so rational and philo- 
sophical an aspect — how it should accord so entirely with the 
conclusions of the soundest reason, judging from the psycholog- 
ical structure of man. We contend that what he affirms he 
saw and heard in the spiritual world are what he should have 
seen and heard, provided the mind can rest with the least as- 
surance upon its clearest inductions. Consequently a state- 
ment which bears such internal marks of probability cannot be 
an argument against the validity of his claims. The intrinsic 
likelihood of a fact said to be revealed cannot justly be urged 
against the probability of the revelation, especially when a 
host of other considerations may be cited in favor of the suppo- 
sition. A man's telling the truth is certainly not the strongest 
evidence of his being a liar. Objections then must be brought 
from some other source, and I think it will be found that they 
all resolve themselves into that based upon the a priori in- 
credibility of such disclosures being ever, under any circum- 
stances, or through any medium, made by God to man. This 

* " The belief, however, of the doctrine of the re-nnion of the same 
body to the soul, has been permitted by Divine Providence, as Swedcn- 
borg observes, for a good reason ; namely, that if mankind had not be- 
lieved in the resurrection of the body, they would often have not believed 
in any resurrection at all. For it being denied by some, that the soul or 
spirit is any distinct substance; it being asserted by others, that there is 
no evidence as to what it is, so as to enable us either to deny or affirm ; 
and with regard to most persons, any thing relating to it being beyond 
their comprehension ; the doctrine of its resurrection would long since 
have been rejected altogether, had not a belief in the resurrection of the 
body been permitted ; for the body being a carnal, natural, corporeal, 
and sensual object, and hence more within the comprehension of the nat- 
ural mind, the members of the external church can the more readily be- 
lieve in its resurrection, and thus preserve in themselves that idea of a 
resurrection, and hence of a future life, of which, otherwise, they would 
have besii deprived. — Clissold's Letter, p. 161." 

14 



158 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

objection, which is singularly destructive in its bearing, can 
only be met by showing that the alleged incredibility may be 
overcome by the force of countervailing evidence — evidence 
of the existence of sufficient reasons, on the part of God, for 
the bestowment of just such new revelations as those which 
Swedenborg affirms to have been made through him. But 
this argument it is not here in place to prosecute. I have al- 
ready touched upon it. 

" From the point now reached in regard to the nature and 
destiny of the soul, I was myself prepared, as I trust my read- 
ers are, for some ulterior results growing out of the condition 
into which man is ushered upon his translation from the body. 
And, first, it follows, by necessary sequence, that the spiritual 
world is replenished with the countless myriads of the spirits 
of deceased men who have once inhabited the earth in terres- 
trial bodies, and have been successively transferred to their 
immortal abode. Indeed it is the teaching of Swedenborg, on 
which I hope on another occasion to enlarge, that all angels 
are human spirits from our own or some other earth, and that 
the ultimate end of the creation of the universe is the formation 
of a boundless heaven, made uj) of the unnumbered millions of 
spirits brought into existence in material bodies, and passing 
out of them into the spiritual receptacle for which they were de- 
signed.* But upon this argument I do not at present dwell. 
My position is, that the spiritual world is replete with the 
spirits of departed men, and if this be admitted, it will doubt- 
less be conceded that they perpetually exist in intimate, though 
to us unconscious, conjunction with the spirits of men in the 
flesh. This arises from the fact that man is a spirit as well as 
a body, and that as such he is necessarily, as to his interiors, a 
denizen of the spiritual world, and abiding under the laws that 
govern a spiritual existence. The doctrine of angelic minis- 
tration is very expressly taught in the Scriptures, and the in- 
spired intimations are by no means scarce, that we are inces- 
santly surrounded by, and in close connection with, a multitude 
of the heavenly and infernal hosts. The truth on this head is 
universally admitted in form by the Christian world, and yet 
that it has comparatively little practical power is undeniable. 
' Why,' says Mr. Clissold, in his Letter to Archbishop Wliately, 
'is the doctrine of Swedenborg in regard to the ministration of 
angels rejected? Frequently only tor the reason that he has 

* See Swcdcnborii's Heaven and Ileil, n. 415, 416, 417. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 159 

treated as matter of fact what with many is mere possibility, it 
may be probability ; that he lias imparted a truth and reality 
to what they profess as their creed. Place much of what he 
has said about the other world in a speculative point of view, 
and many will consider it to be reasonable ; present it to them 
as a matter of fact, and it is absurd ; afar off, it is true ; at 
home, it is false.' 

" Now it is certain that this tenet of angelic agency comes 
home to us with new and imposing power in the disclosures of 
Swedenborg on this head. According to him we are every 
moment in the most vital association with the spirits both of 
heaven and hell — they are the perpetual prompters of our 
thoughts — they incessantly work by insinuating influences on 
our loves — they give force, on the one hand, to the power of 
temptation, and, on the other, fortify the soul, by hidden influx, 
to resist temptation — and finally after death every man enters 
that specific form of heavenly or hellish society with which, by 
means of his ruling love, he had been tacitly conjoined in life. 
All this is comprised in Swedenborg's doctrine of the world of 
spirits — a doctrine growing out of that respecting the true 
nature of the soul — and I would ask whether it is not sus- 
tained by the highest internal evidence of its truth, provided 
the Scripture informations on this head be conceded as true? 
In what way do spirits come into communion with us and act 
upon us, except through our minds ? Should not spirit come 
into contact with spirit rather than with body ? If they act 
upon the physical man, it is only through the mental. The 
guardianship which ministering spirits exercise towards us is 
one that puts itself forth by inward monition and impulse, and 
by warding off the infestations of the spirits of hell, who are 
continually inciting to evil, and aiming to compass our ruin. 
Though they are not, according to Swedenborg, able to see di- 
rectly any thing at all in the natural or material world, yet 
through the medium of our thoughts and affections they be- 
come cognizant of our physical condition, and can therefore 
order their ' spiriting' according to our outward as well as in- 
ward circumstances.* What valid objection then can be urged 

* "I regret that the crude views frequently entertained, even in in- 
telligent quarters, in respect to the genuine purport of Swedenborg's 
doctrines, render it neces'sary plainly to disavow, in behalf of his adhe- 
rents, the claim to a sensible, open, and habitual intercourse with spirits. 
They acknowledge this in the case of Swedenborg himself; they believe 
too, that it was the original prerogative of mau in innocence, and as 



160 " MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

against this feature of the scheme? If Swedenborg has not 
unfolded the true relation between these two great departments 
of being — the angelic and the human — what is it? In what 
respects does the ministry of spirits differ from that which he 
has assigned to them ?***** 

" I have thus far disclosed the successive stages of my prog- 
ress up to a point where I was prepared to welcome the gen- 
eral scheme of doctrines constituting the theology of the New 
Church. It came commended as a whole by a power of inter- 
nal evidence which I could neither gainsay nor resist. But 
there was still one exception. I was compelled to make a re- 
serve on the score of the internal sense of the Word. Even if 
there was a foundation in truth for the principle in the ab- 
stract, I could not perceive the necessity of making so much of 
it as I saw was continually done in the expositions of Sweden- 
borg, and in the writings and preachings of his espousers. My 
long continued study of the letter and my fixed habits of inter- 
pretation, greatly indisposed me to a cordial reception of the 
general principle. The light of conviction, therefore, on this 
point, was very slowly received, and it came at last mainly 
through the medium of the Memorable Relations — those re- 
markable developments which lay open so strikingly the spirit- 
ual constitution of our being. I was gradually compelled to 
yield to the evidence of the fact, that there is in all men poten- 
tially, and in renewed men actually, an interior faculty or 
prompting which spontaneously seeks in the Word a sense be- 
yond the mere purport of the letter. I saw that if there is a 
spiritual nature in man, the development of which brings him 
into converse with spiritual things, then the real pabulum of 
his life must be extracted from the soul through the body of the 
inspired Word. The foundation principle of the whole matter, 
as well as its practical working, is susceptible of an easy illus- 
tration. 

" Swedenborg remarks, that when man reads the Word and 
perceives it according to the sense of the letter, or the exter- 
nal sense, the angels attendant upon him and mingling in his 
thoughts, perceive it in the internal or spiritual sense, for all 
the thought of the angels is spiritual, whereas the thought of 

far as that primitive state may be restored, they doubt not but that lie 
will again come into the enjoyment of it; but the assertion of such in- 
tercourse as an ordinary occurrence at this day forms no part of their 
system." 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 1G1 

man is natural. The natural ideas of man thus pass into spirit- 
ual ideas with the angels. Now let us suppose, in order to 
present the matter in its true light, that a parent puts into the 
hand of his child Bunyan's Pilgrim's "Progress, and seats him 
at his feet to read the narrative aloud. The child is captivated 
by the story — he follows the Pilgrim witli intense interest 
through all the varieties of his adventures, as if it were a ver- 
itable history, not thinking of any deeper meaning couched 
under the veil of the letter. But turn now from the reading 
child to the listening parent. How differently does he regard 
the whole ! He does not rest in the letter. He penetrates the 
allegorical veil. He recognizes the career of the Christian, in 
the travels, and trials, and conflicts of the Pilgrim. lie sees a 
most beautiful array of spiritual truth under the imagery of the 
journey from the City of Destruction to the Heavenly City. 
In a word, he takes a spiritual sense from the very same lan- 
guage which conveys to the child only a literal sense. 

"This, then, will unfold the genius of Swedenborg's doctrine 
of the internal sense of the Word. The angels are to man 
precisely what the parent is to the child; and when that child 
becomes a man, and in like manner reads the Word, it may be 
that that same parent, now a disembodied spirit, may be pre- 
sent at the reading, and feed on the interior purport of what is 
read, just as he did when listening on earth to the story of the 
Pilgrim as read by his child. 

" It is no sufficient objection to this, that the view presented 
makes the spiritual sense to be adapted rather to the reception 
of angels than to that of men. This is essentially true, and it 
is only because the angel is really wrapped up in the inner or 
spiritual man, that this man is capable of rising in his under- 
standing of the Word above the plane of the literal sense. 
The regenerate spirit is an angel of light temporarily impris- 
oned in clay. 

" From this I think it can be easily conceived that all my 
objections to this peculiar feature of the scheme should have 
been effectually done away ; and so in fact they were. Nothing 
now resists the most assured and cordial adoption of the system 
as a whole. Upon the most deliberate and careful survey I 
am unable to discover in it a single point at which it lies open 
to the assault of a fair logic or a sound exegesis. Relying 
upon internal evidence for the enforcement of its claims, I am 
not competent to perceive in what respect it fails in its de- 
14* 



162 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

mands upon my credence. As to that department of the system 
which relates to Swedenborg's intercourse with the spiritual 
world — his converse with the angels for twenty-seven years — 
the question is settled in my own mind by a very summary 
process. I first determine the intrinsic naked possibility of the 
fact itself. Does the psychological nature of man admit of its 
having taken place ? But how can I doubt on this head when 
the Bible is full of testimonies to the fact of prophets and 
apostles having been admitted to such converse ? Still it may 
be possible in general, without being probable in any particu- 
lar case. The next question then is that of probability in the 
case of Swedenborg. What reasons does he give me for be- 
lieving that this privilege was accorded to him ? Can my calm 
reflection perceive a sufficient occasion for such a disclosure, at 
such a period, and through such an instrument? To this the 
answer is, that according to him the revelation in question is 
connected with the Second Advent of Jesus Christ, not in per- 
son, but in power and spirit, or, in other words, in the glory of 
the spiritual sense of the Word, which is the essential Truth 
and Divinity of the Word. I examine this point as a pure 
question of prophecy, and I find myself brought irresistibly to 
the conclusion, that if such an event is ever to occur, it must 
occur at about this age of the world, the space of forty, fifty, or 
eighty years making no essential difference in the count of 
time in regard to an era of such magnitude. Ifso, I recognize 
the highest probability of a new influx of light from heaven of 
precisely the nature of that which shines from Swedenborg's 
pages ; nor can I be at all shaken from the firmness of this 
conviction, by any course of argument which shall refuse to 
consider the merits of the prophetic position. If the nature of 
the Second Advent be not what I have now intimated — if it 
be not now transpiring — I feel emboldened to demand that 
the world be informed what is its true nature, and what its 
true epoch. These are questions that cannot always be blinked. 
The mass of Christians will not always be content with the 
virtual position of their teachers, that the very central theme 
of all New Testament prophecy was given for no other end 
than to be a perpetual puzzle for faith, and therefore of no 
practical moment to mankind. 

" But, secondly, as to the instrument; I find no objection to 
Swedenborg considered in this character. He was confessedly 
a man of pre-eminent talents and pre-eminent moral worth. If 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 163 

some one was to be selected for the purpose, why not he ? No 
man has ever lived who was more amply endowed with all the 
requisites for such a function.* 

" And, then, lastly, when I look at the essential nature and 
genius of his revelations, I find them replete with internal evi- 
dence of truth. They incessantly build themselves upon, and 
refer themselves to, certain grand principles of physiology, 
psychology, and general philosophy, in which my clearest rea- 
son cordially acquiesces ; nor can I conceive the possibility of 
any other man's reason dissenting from them when once rightly 
understood. But I can too easily conceive of the operation of 
causes which shall keep men in ignorance of their real charac- 
ter. I affirm, however, that the internal evidence of truth is 
amply adequate to sustain their pretensions, and this no man 
can deny who knows not what that evidence is, and this again 
he cannot know without having examined it. To one who has, 
and has appreciated its weight, the testimony of external mira- 
cles will be of very little account. Miracles in support of a 
divine revelation can never supersede the necessity of internal 
evidence. They compel attention — they prove the trustwor- 
thiness of the messenger — but they do not demonstrate the 

* " To your interrogation, ' Why from a philosopher I have been chosen 
to this office ? ' I give for answer, to the end that the spiritual knowledge, 
which is revealed at this day, might be rationally learned, and naturally 
understood ; because spiritual truths answer unto natural ones, inasmuch 
as these originate and flow from them, and serve as a foundation for the 
former. That what is spiritual is similar unto, and corresponds with, 
what is human or natural, or belonging to the terrestrial orb, may be seen 
in the treatise on H. and H. n. 87 to 102, and 103 to 115. I was, on this 
account, by the Lord, first introduced into the natural sciences, and thus 
prepared from the year 1710 to 1745, when heaven was opened unto me. 
Every one is morally educated and spiritually regenerated by the Lord, 
by being led from what is natural to what is spiritual. Moreover, the 
Lord has given me a love of spiritual truth, that is to say, not with any 
view to honor or profit, but merely for the sake of truth itself; for every 
one who loves truth, merely for the sake of truth, sees it from the Lord, 
the Lord being the way and the truth. See John xiv. 6. But he who 
professes the love of truth for the sake of honor or gain, sees truth from 
his own selfhood 1 , and to see from one's self, is to see falsity. The con- 
firmation of falsehood shuts the church, but a rational confirmation of 
truth opens it; what man can otherwise comprehend spiritual things, 
which enter into the understanding? The doctrinal notion received in 
the Protestant church, viz., that in theological matters, reason should be 
held captive under obedience to faith, locks up the church ; what can 
open it, but an understanding enlightened by the Lord'? — Hobait's Life 
of Swedenborg, p. 44." 



164 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

intrinsic truth of the message. This must shine into the soul 
by its own light.* ***** 

" In drawing the present narrative to a close I cannot fail to 
be aware that the general view advanced of the truth of Swe- 
denhorg's revelations, may be charged as a one-sided view, and 
one that omits to give due weight to the objections that are 
fairly to be urged against them. But what are these objec- 
tions ? Nothing would afford me higher gratification than to 
have them arrayed, in all their force, against the conclusions 
to which I have come. This has ever been the difficulty with 
which the espousers of the system in question have had to 
contend — that their opponents have refused to state their ob- 
jections except in the form of such wholesale and sweeping de- 
nunciation as might be conveyed in the epithets incredible, 
absurd, ridicidous, nonsensical, etc. To this mode of argumen- 
tation it must be confessed to be no easy matter to reply, for, 
as Paley remarks in regard to Gibbon, ' Who can refute a 
sneer?' In the admission of Swedenborg's claims to a divine 
illumination, we profess to have been governed by the legiti- 
mate rules of evidence which in all great matters determine 
the human mind to belief or disbelief. "We perceive that that 
evidence involves the alleged truth of certain fundamental 
principles of our nature, which, if once established, inevitably 
draw after them the grand results announced in the mass of 
disclosures. The whole question, in their view, turns upon the 
truth or falsity of these principles, and as they have been de- 
cisive in fixing their own faith, they see not why they are not 



* "It is, however, to be known that the receivers of Swedenborg's doc- 
trines do not refuse to submit his claims to the test of miracles, ifconvcr.se 
with the dead, and cognizance of what is transpiring at a given time in a 
distant part of the world, be conceded to he miraculous. They will pledge 
themselves to produce well-attested and indisputable evidence of both 
these kinds of facts in regard to Swedenborg. But they make no account 
of them as a substratum of their own faith, which rests on vastly higher 
grounds, and they do not plead them for the conviction of others, because 
they know that although they cannot be denied, yet they will not be be- 
lieved in their tiue character. It will be taken for granted that they were 
capable of a purely natural solution, provided we knew what it was. On 
the same grounds the miracles of Christ were rejected by the great mass 
of those who were eye-witnesses of them. There is no greater delusion 
than to suppose that men yield easily to the evidence of miracles, however 
genuine and well-authenticated. A much greater miracle is necessary 
to make them believe that they are miracles. In nothing has Sweden- 
borg shown a deeper insight into human nature, than in what he has said 
of the non-efficacv of miracles as an evidence of moral truth." 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 165 

entitled to demand a verdict on this head. Does not every 
system fairly claim to be judged of on the ground of its funda- 
mental principles? "Why then should this justice be refused 
to that of Swedenborg ? Though he pleads the prerogative of 
' visions and revelations of the Lord,' yet he asks no man's 
credence simply on this score, if he does not at the same time 
recognize a rational evidence of the grounds on which the claim 
is made. Has the claim been met in an equal spirit of fair- 
ness? Far from it. The course of opponents has usually been 
to seize upon some particular feature of the scheme and to 
hold it up to ridicule and odium, detached from all its relations 
and dependencies in the grand whole to which it belongs, and 
in connexion with which alone it can be properly viewed. 
Against this procedure we enter our earnest protestation. We 
affirm it to be pre-eminently unjust, ungenerous, unchristian. 
It is a policy utterly unworthy of pens professing to be guided 
by a supi'eme regard to truth. It is a virtual expression of 
contempt for the understanding of the advocates of these doc- 
trines which they are entirely conscious of not deserving. Is 
it for a moment to be supposed that they did not feel at the 
outset the force of the objections founded upon the contrariety 
of Swedenborg's teachings, on many points, to their previous 
belief, as sensibly as it is possible for any one else to feel it ? 
Do they not uniformly confess this, together with the long-con- 
tinued and often agonizing struggles which preceded their sur- 
render of fondly cherished opinions ? Yet the strength of the 
objections finally gave way to the pressure of countervailing 
evidence, and they strenuously contend that sentence shall in 
the first instance be passed, not upon the results, but upon the 
process, of their convictions. They are ready and anxious to 
spread before others the grounds and reasons which have gov- 
erned their belief, that their soundness or unsoundness may 
be pronounced upon by the candid and reflecting. They are 
entitled to the credit of being fully aware of the momentous 
consequences attached to the adoption of a religious creed, 
which shall permanently mould, their characters in this world 
and shape their destiny in the next. They are no less alive 
than their fellow-men to the folly of building their most sacred 
hopes upon the airy basis of dreams and reveries. Nor do 
they confess to any peculiar incapacity to weigh the evidences 
of truth upon which a professed revelation from heaven is 
commended to their acceptance. They are at any rate to their 
own consciousness determined by reasons, and it is by the in- 



166 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

trinsic sufficiency or insufficiency of these reasons that they 
would have their decision judged. But alas, how seldom is 
their demand on this score heeded! It is drowned in the out- 
burst of obloquy and contempt poured forth upon an alleged 
mass of rhodomontade and vagary, which carries its own con- 
demnation on its face. ' How,' it is asked, ' can a rational 
man, if he believes in the Scriptures, believe in the idle report 
of celestial conferences such as Swedenborg describes ? Where 
is the evidence of any such miraculous vouchsafement at the 
present day? And what must be the weakness of the mind 
that can conceive of any such scenes transacting among spirits 
in the other world as form the staple of Swedenborg's memora- 
ble relations — memorable only for their tax upon human credu- 
lity? How can any one receive them as true, without writing 
the Scriptures as false? And how will he acquit himself in 
reconciling their inconsistencies with the dictates of common 
sense ? ' 

" All this is very easily said, though not remarkable for any 
peculiar logical acumen or pertinency of scope to the real ques- 
tion at issue. This question is a question of the intrinsic truth 
of certain first principles asserted in regard to the constitution 
of man's nature, and the necessary conditions of his being in 
another world. The primary point of debate is not whether 
Swedenborg actually saw and heard what he affirms he did in 
the spirit-world, but whether the things which he states in re- 
gard to that world are not true in themselves independent of 
his seeing and hearing. When the asserted phenomena are 
fairly presented to the mind, as he has described them, and in 
connexion with the psychological principles involved, is not the 
conviction compelled that such is the actual state of things in 
that world, whether Swedenborg saw it or not? This is the 
question, and upon this question the receivers of Swedenborg's 
disclosures, having not a shadow of doubt themselves, are ready 
to join issue with any form or any amount of dissent. They 
see in the principles of these revelations, considered in their 
leading features, the eternal truths of God and the universe, 
and by these truths they feel compelled at all events to abide, 
with whatever they agree or disagree. The strength of assur- 
ance with which they hold them cannot be in the least weakened 
by any apparent conflict with the letter of Holy Writ, for they 
know it to be impossible that there should be any real conflict 
between them and the true sense of the inspired record. Their 
position in this respect is precisely that of the devout astron- 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 167 

omer and geologist. They know that the results of their sci- 
ence are true, and they know equally well that the Scriptures 
are true also, and that God sees, if they do not, the mode in 
which these two departments of truth perfectly harmonize. 
The soundness of the scientific inductions will be very apt to be 
^denied by those who have not acquainted themselves with the 
facts on which they rest, and at the same time are very jealous 
of the honor intact of revelation, but their pious remonstrances 
avail nothing with those who are well aware of the ground on 
which they stand. Their reply is, ' Weigh the evidence in its 
length and breadth, and then see if you can resist the conclu- 
sions, the letter of Scripture to the contrary notwithstanding. 
Judge too if it be possible for the truth of Scripture to contra- 
dict the truth of science.' 

" I venture then to reaffirm the truth per se of the fundamen- 
tal principles involved in Swedenborg's disclosures of the other 
life, and of the connexion that subsists between the natural 
and the spiritual world. It is truth attested by its own evi- 
dence, and by which the reason must inevitably abide, even 
though the admission be made (which, however, it is not), that 
errors may be detected in certain minor items of the scheme. 
Truth is truth, be it related to whatever errors it may, and all 
truth is equally authoritative upon all minds. It is the concern 
of one man as much as of another, and, if the principles of 
Swedenborg's revelations are stamped with this character, it is 
vain for his professed opponents to think to shift from them- 
selves to his advocates the responsibility of defending or ex- 
plaining them, or of showing how their consistency with other 
truths is to be established. They are indeed willing to assume 
their part in the performance of this task, but they will not 
consent that it shall be deemed to pertain to them exclusively. 
They recognize no obligation of this nature which does not 
rest upon the whole world as truly as it does upon them. 
The simple question is that of the abstract and absolute truth 
of the principles laid down by him, and which take hold 
of the elemental properties of our being* If these are false 
let it be shown, and let them be arrayed in contrast with 
those which their opponents maintain to be true. We shall 
thus have a definite and 'tangible point of debate. Mere 
denials and denunciations — mere ad invidiam charges and 
hypercritical censures — avail nothing. We call for argu- 
ment and not invective. We refuse to be put off by the cita- 



1G8 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

tion of what will be deemed startling or ludicrous paragraph?, 
when we submit to tbe tribunal of reason tbe question whether 
the soul instead of the body is not the true seat and subject of 
.sensation — whether the soul does not elaborate the body, and 
give it its own form by correspondence — whether the soul 
does not live in every part of the body, and at death go forth 
possessed of all the powers and faculties which distinguished 
it during its sojourn in the body — whether accordingly it does 
not see, hear, touch, and smell as truly in the other life as in 
this — and Anally whether, if so, spirits do not enjoy precisely 
that kind of intercousre with each and with us, which Swe- 
denborg so minutely describes? We would fain be resolved 
whether if the fundamental axioms of the psychology be ad- 
mitted, all that Swedenborg states of the actual condition of 
spirits, and of the laws of their action upon each other and upon 
us, do not follow by necessary sequence. Has not every man, 
for instance, a ruling love? Is not that love his life? And 
will not his future destiny be the complete development of his 
interior life as good or evil ? Are not Will and Understanding, 
or Affection and Intellect, his distinguishing attributes ? And 
does not a good Affection always tend to conjoin itself with 
Truth, and an evil Affection with Falsehood ? Will this law 
cease to operate in the other life ? Must not heaven be the 
perfect union of Goodness with its kindred Truth, and hell the 
consummated alliance of Evil with its kindred False? Are 
men, men, and women, women, i. e. are they male and female, 
from the soul as well as the body ? Do they enter the other 
world, a man, a male spirit, and a woman, a female spirit ? 
Does not then the distinction of sex hold in that world as truly 
as in this ? And if so, is it easy to conceive that those who 
had been married partners here, if internally and cordially 
united, should not sustain to each other a similar spiritual 
relation there ? And if the prospect of this is apparently pre- 
cluded by our Saviour's declaration, that ' in heaven they neither 
marry nor are given in marriage,' should we not rather con- 
clude that the purport of the saying is, that there are no such 
marriages in heaven as were then in the gross and carnal con- 
ceptions of the Sadducees, but not conveying the idea that pure 
spiritual marriages entered into on earth were not perpetuated 
in heaven ? * * * 

'• lint more serious consideration, it may be said, is due to the 
fact that Swedenborg invades the sanctity and integrity of the 



OP PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 1G9 

Sacred Canon, and by rejecting a portion of the Scriptures vir- 
tually annihilates the authority of the whole. This is a grave 
charge, representing probably a wide-spread opinion, and the 
point involved deserves to be set in a clear light. I remark 
then, in the first place, that Swedenborg in fact rejects nothing 
from the canon, He takes the Bible as he finds it, and as he 
finds it he leaves it, so far as the matter of rejection is con- 
cerned. We ask for the production of a single line from his 
writings indicating a sentence of exclusion of any book of the 
Scripture from the place which it occupies. He often quotes 
from them indiscriminately whatever is suitable to the subject- 
matter in hand, and his general tone in regard to the whole 
canon is that of high respect. At the same time it is true that 
he does affirm a very broad line of distinction between different 
portions of the sacred volume, on the score of plenary inspira- 
tion. He claims a vastly higher character, in this respect, for 
certain books, both in the Old Testament and the New, than he 
does for others. In the Old Testament he recognizes a peculiar 
sanctity in the portions designated by our Lord ' the Law, the 
Psalms and the Prophets,' which by being thus distinctly re- 
ferred to are stamped with the seal of the highest authority. 
The books constituting this threefold division are, according to 
him, the five books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 
1 and 2 Kings, the Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, 
Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, 
Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. 
These he declares to be written under a higher degree of in- 
spiration than the remaining books, and to contain an internal 
spiritual sense, in which consists their essential sanctity and 
divinity, and from which they constitute what is emphatically 
to be denominated The Word of the Old Testament. The re- 
mainder, which is composed of the books of Ruth, 1 and 2 
Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesi- 
astes, and the Song of Solomon, do not possess this sense, or 
but in a very limited degree, and therefore are assigned to a 
secondary rank, as compared with the preceding. Now it is 
certain that these very books (including also Daniel and Lam- 
entations, but without sufficient reason) are thrown together 
at the end of the Hebrew canon, in which the. collocation of the 
books is entirely different from ours. This arrangement, the 
Jews affirm, is rnade on the grqund of a lower degree of sanc- 
tity pertaining tq this portion of them than to the others, so 



170 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

that Swedenborg is at any rate sustained in his sentence by the 
voice of the Jewish Church.* 

" These books are entitled collectively the Hagiographa, and 
it is usually supposed that the title Psalms, as used by our 
Saviour, Luke xxiv. 41, includes the whole of this division, but 
there is no adequate evidence that it was empkryed in this 
latitude at that time, or in other words that the title above 
mentioned included any more than the book so denominated ; 
consequently the triplicate division of ' the Law of Moses, the 
Prophets, and the Psalms,' is taken in the New Church as 
comprising the totality of the books which constitute the Old 



* "Prof. Stuart freely admits that the Jewish writers did recognize a 
distinction in the Sacred Books, founded upon the different degrees of 
inspiration under which they were penned, although he peremptorily de- 
cides that 'frlte whole affair is a mere Rabbinical conceit, hatched* out 
during the dark ages of Rabbinism that preceded the composition of the 
Babylonish Talmud.' The fact, however, he states as follows : ' The Tal- 
mudic (i.e., the present Hebrew) division of the sacred books depends 
on some conceits about the different gradations of inspiration, which are 
not only incapable of any satisfactory proof, but arc in themselves quite 
improbable. The story of the Jewish doctors is, that the books of Moses 
take the precedence above all others, because God spake with him mouth 
to mouth ; that the Prophets who came after him, were such as, whether 
sleeping or waking when they received revelations, were deprived of all 
the use of their senses, and were spoken to by a voice, and saw prophetic 
visions in ecstasy; that the third ami lowest class of the sacred writers 
were those, who, preserving the use of their senses, spake like other men, 
and yet in such a way that, although not favored with dreams, or visions 
in ecstasy, they still perceived a divine influence resting upon them, at 
whose suggestion they spoke or wrote what they made public. Of this 
last class, according to the Rabbins, were the authors of the Kethubim.' 
He says, however, ' I am far enough from asserting that the contents of 
any and every book of the Old Testament are all of equal interest and 
importance. This is not and cannot be the case.' The prounds of the 
■ Hebrew classification, to wit, different degrees of inspiration, demand a 
larger concession than this, and Prof. S. makes it in the following sen- 
tence. ' Still it is difficult, after admitting their grounds of classifying 
the Scriptures, to avoid the idea of a difference in the authority of each 
class, and in the credence due to each.' As, however, the fact is that the 
Jews acknowledged different degrees of the divine afflatus as the ground 
of this threefold division of their Scriptures, we venture to believe that 
there was actually a reason for it, as Swedcnborg asserts, though it is still 
possible that Jewish fancies and caprices may have been engrafted upon 
the truth that lay at the foundation of the whole matter. Henpstenbcrg 
is also clearly of this opinion. His idea of the ecstatic state of the proph- 
ets in the reception of their messages, strikes u? as extremely rational 
and sound, and yet Prof. S. is evidently most inveteratcly opposed to it. 
His own views appear to us utterly destructive of all correct ideas of in- 
spiration." 



OF PROF. GEO RGB BUSH. 171 

Testament Word. This designation, however, implies a character 
so immeasurably elevated above that which is ordinarily assigned 
to any of the canonical writings, that the rest of them may well 
be left in undisturbed possession of that modicum of inspiration 
which is usually claimed for them. 

" In the New Testament Swedenborg inform us that this char- 
acter of essential sanctity or divinity pertains to the four Gos- 
pels and the Apocalypse, but not to the Acts of the Apostles and 
the Epistles. The former, like the Word of the Old Testament, 
were dictated by the inspiring power which took possession of 
the writers for that time only.* The Acts and the Epistles, on 
the other hand, were written under that general but more lax 
kind of inspiration which was inseparable from the persons of 
the writers, and. which may therefore properly be termed per- 
sonal, while the other is denominated plenary, implying the dic- 
tation of the very words and phrases employed, ad of which con- 
tain a higher internal sense, couched under the ^n^a of I he letter, 
and to be interpreted on the principle of Correspondence. 

" Let us see, then, how far this view of the subject is justly 
liable to the charge of derogating in any measure from the true 
and essential character of the Scriptures. According to the 
prevalent view of inspiration, the sacred books were ad of them 
written by men who were under a general control and super- 
intendence of the Holy Spirit, which secured the infallibility of 
their teaching, and this infallibility constitutes the highest attri- 
bute of the writings originating from this source. They are in 
this respect all marked by the same character, and all placed 
upon the same level. But .Swedenborg, in behalf of the Divine 
Word, claims something unspeakably higher than mere infal- 
libility. He declares that the Word is not only from the Lord, 
but is the Lord, just as any written or spoken communication 
of a man is a form of the man himself A man's vocal speech 
is an emanation from the man himself; he is essentially in his 
utterance ; and the case is not altered by its being embodied in 



* "' In fact, the lowest gradations of inspiration, ascribed by the Rabbics 
to the authors of the Kethubim (Hagiographa), is as high as Christianity 
demands, or, one may say, even permits us to ascribe to men. No mm, 
not even Moses or Isaiah, was uniformly and always inspired. Of all God's 
messengers, only one received the gift of the Spirit without measure ; and 
ho was the only one who never erred and never sinned. Others were 
inspired for a particular purpose, and (it maybe) remained so, until that 
purpose was accomplished. Then they returned to their usual state.' — 
Prof. Stuart on the 0. T. Canon, p. 27 1." 



172 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

written language. A letter addressed by one person to another, 
is as truly a going forth of his spirit, in the form of words, as if 
the communication were made by spirit coming in contact with 
spirit in the spiritual world. The Divine Word is the Divine 
voice speaking to man, and the Divine voice is as much a form 
<»f the Divine being as a man's voice is a form of his being. But 
the human voice is effected by the medium of the undulations 
)f the atmosphere, which of course cannot hold in respect to the 
Deity. The aerial sound, however, in man's case, is nothing 
more than a vehicle for conveying the thought and affection of 
the speaker's mind, and cannot be needed for the communica- 
tion of spirits disembodied. They then communicate by impress- 
ing themselves upon each other. Now God is a spirit, and in our 
present corporeal state he comes into communion with our spirits 
through the medium of written speech, but this speech is Him- 
self, in his essential Love and Truth, and whatever is in Him- 
self is in his speech, that is, in his Word, just as Swedenborg 
remarks in a passage before alluded to, that ' every thought, 
speech, and writing derives its essence and life from him who 
thinks, speaks, and writes, the whole man with his quality being 
in those things, but in the Word i.» the Lord alone.' The Word 
of God therefore is the living Divine Truth, and is at any one 
moment just as really the present utterance, expression, or ema- 
nation of the Divine Being, as when flowing into the minds of the 
sacred penmen by whom it was indited, as they were moved 
{acted, borne, or carried away) by the Holy Ghost. But if the 
Divine Word is the Divine Lord, it is impossible to conceive 
that his inmost affections and thoughts — in a word, his essen- 
tial Divinity — should not be in it, and consequently that there 
should not be a depth of import entirely transcending the sense 
of the outward letter. 

" We have thus far spoken in general terms of an internal or 
spiritual sense in the Word, without reference to that more spe- 
cific threefold aspect which Swedenborg ascribes to it. We will 
first present in Swedenborg's own words the fundamental ground 
on which the position rests. ' From the Lord proceed these prin- 
ciples, the celestial, the spiritual, and the natural, one after an- 
other. Whatsoever proceeds from his divine love is called celes- 
tial, and is divine good ; whatsoever proceeds from his divine 
wisdom is called spiritual, and is divine truth: the natural par- 
takes of both, and is their complex in ultimates. The angels of 
the celestial kingdom, who compose the third or highest heaven, 
are in that divine principle which proceeds from the Lord that 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUStt. 173 

is called celestial, for they are in the good of love from the Lord ; 
the angels of the Lord's spiritual kingdom, who compose the 
second or middle heaven, are in that divine principle which pro- 
ceeds from the Lord that is called spiritual, for they are in the 
truths of wisdom from the Lord : but men who compose the 
Lord's church on earth, are in the divine-natural, which also 
proceeds from the Lord. Hence it follows, that the divine 
principle, proceeding from the Lord, in its progress to its ulti- 
mates, descends through three degrees, and is termed celestial, 
spiritual, and natural. The divine principle which proceeds 
from the Lord and descends to men, descends through those 
three degrees, and when it has descended, it contains those 
three degrees in itself. Such is the nature of every divine 
principle proceeding from the Lord; wherefore, when it is in 
its last degree, it is in its fulness. Such is the nature and qual- 
ity of the Word ; in its last sense it is natural, in its interior 
sense it is spiritual, and in its inmost sense it is celestial ; and 
in each sense it is divine. That the Word is of such a nature 
and quality, does not appear in the sense of the letter, which 
is natural, by reason that man has heretofore been altogether 
unacquainted with the state of the heavens, and consequently 
with the nature of the spiritual principle, and the celestial, and 
of course with the distinction between them and the natural 
principle.' — JV. J. Doct. of Sacred Scripture, 6. 

" For a very clear and satisfactory expansion of the idea em- 
bodied in this paragraph, we cite the following extract from the 
letter of the Rev. J. Clowes to the editors of the London Chris- 
tian Observer, in reply to an attack in that work on his pam- 
phlet entitled ' A Few Plain Answers to the Question, Why do 
you receive the testimony of Baron Swedenborg ? ' 

" ' The term celestial, according to Baron Swedenborg's defi- 
nition of it, involves in it, and therefore expresses, whatsoever 
hath relation to heavenly love and charity, consequently what- 
soever hath relation to the human tvill, when under the influ- 
ence of heavenly love and charity. The term spiritual again, 
according to Baron Swedenborg, involves in it, and therefore 
expresses whatsoever hath relation to heavenly truth or knowl- 
edge, consequently whatsoever hath relation to the human under- 
standing, when under the influence of heavenly truth and knowl- 
edge. The term literal or natural again, when applied to the 
Sacred Scriptures, involves in it, according to the ideas of Baron 
Swedenborg, all that external language, expression, and history, 
15* 



174 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

necessary for the manifestation and conveyance of the Divine 
Love and Wisdom to the human will and understanding. 

" 'Nothing can he conceived more plain and simple than the 
above distinctions between what is celestial, spiritual, and literal 
or natural, as applied to the distinct senses of the Word of God ; 
nothing also more agreeable to the whole testimony of that Word, 
which is continually discriminating between the faculties of love, 
of knowledge, and of their expression, consequently between the 
qualities and characters here adverted to. And yet nothing else 
is wanting, but the apprehension of these distinctions, to enable 
any candid reader to discern clearly what Baron Swedenborg 
means by celestial, spiritual, and literal or natural senses of the 
Sacred Scriptures, and to see further that all those three senses 
must needs co-exist, or be combined together, in the Divine 
Speech or Word of the Most High God. 

" ' For what shall we say is the Divine Speech or Word of the 
Most High God, and what are we to suppose its sacred con- 
tents to be ? When the Great and Holy God utters His 
voice, it must surely be with a Divine Purpose ; and a Divine 
Purpose must as certainly involve in it a Divine Intelligence ; 
and a Divine purpose and intelligence, when expressed in lan- 
guage, and accommodated to human apprehension, must needs 
with equal certainty imply ^literal or historical meaning, adapt- 
ed to the conveyance of that Purpose and to the discovery of 
that Intelligence to the wills and understandings of men. For 
as when a wise and good man speaks, his speech must needs 
consist of these three distinct parts or principles, viz., intention, 
thought, and expression, the last of which must of necessity con- 
tain and convey the two former; how much more is it to be ex- 
pected that the case will be the same with the Word or Speech 
of the Most High God ! In this Divine Word or speech, 
therefore, we must needs suppose a Divine Intention, Thought, 
and Expression to render it complete, since, if any of the three 
be wanting, it must be proportionably defective. But a Divine 
Intention implies a- Divine Love, since it is impossible to con- 
ceive that the intention of God can be grounded in any other 
principle but the purest love and mercy in regard to man : a 
Divine Thought also implies a Divine Wisdom, since we are 
compelled to allow that every thought of the Most High must 
needs be grounded in the purest wisdom : and, lastly, a Divine 
Expression implies a Divine Letter or Language, without which 
we are utterly at a loss to conceive how the Divine Love and 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 175 

Wisdom can express themselves, so as (o be communicable to 
man. 

'• ' Behold here, tlien, the manifest origin of the three distinct 
senses of the Sacred Scriptures, the celestial, the spiritual, the 
literal or natural, spoken of by Baron Swedenborg, and bow 
the Word of God must of necessity be incomplete and imper- 
fect, unless all those three senses are combined together in it ! 
For the celestial sense, according to Baron Svvedenborg, involves 
in it whatsoever relates to the Divine Love, and whatsoever has 
a tendency to excite that love in the ivill and affections of the 
devout reader: the spiritual sense again involves in it what- 
soever relates to the Divine Wisdom, and whatsoever is com- 
municative of that Wisdom to the reader's understanding and 
thought: and, lastly, the natural or literal sense involves in it 
whatsoever relates to the expression of the Divine Love and 
Wisdom, and is best adapted to convey those heavenly prin- 
ciples to the reader's mind, and to impress them on his life. 
The Word of God is thus wonderfully adapted to every part 
and principle of the constitution of that being to whom it is ad- 
dressed, and for whose use it is intended, because that being 
also consists of three distinct parts or principles, Avhich together 
constitute the whole of his life, viz., a will, an understanding, and 
an operation, or a celestial, a spiritual, and a natural part or 
principle. If then the Word of God had not also consisted of 
the same distinct parts or principles, it could never have been 
so accommodated to man, as to produce in him the saving 
effects it was intended to do, consequently it would have been, 
in regard to those effects, imperfect and incomplete.' — Plain 
Ansicers, P. 41. * * * * * 

"A word upon the practical bearings of the system, and I 
have done. The impression, I believe, is somewhat widely prev- 
alent that the scheme of doctrines propounded by Swedenborg 
is signally lacking in the elements of moral power. From the 
fact that it professes to develop the spiritual world, and (hat it 
deals so largely with supersensual objects, the idea has taken 
root that it sets before us a religion of the fancy — that its piety 
is merely a species of spiritual romancing — that it appeals' 
more to an excited imagination than to sober reason — that it 
ministers too much to vain curiosity and too little to sound 
tvisdom — that its legitimate product is persuasion rather than 
faith — and that it is not a genial soil for the growth of the 
slaid, stern, and hardy virtues of self-denial, patience, and 
never eeasina; devotion to the higher interests of our fellow- 



17G MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

men. All this, if true, would indeed constitute a weight of 
objection against the system, which it would he difficult to 
countervail even hy the most imposing array of testimonies in 
its favor. But I do not admit its truth. Waving all appeal 
to experience or to the lives of its disciples, I see nothing in 
the genius, of the system which can justly expose it to the 
charge of deficiency on the score of ethical influence of the 
most salutary and transforming character. Its fundamental 
principle is love in its essence, as its highest law is that of 
charity going forth in use. Its end is the conjunction of the 
soul with the Lord in his Divine Good, and as a product 
of this, the spontaneous outflowing of the inner promptings 
in kindly affeciion and henefieent act towai'ds the neighhor. 
From its essential principles it lays its requisitions upon the 
very inmost acting of the intellectual and moral man ; and 
from the clear analysis it affords of the constituent elements of 
his being, he is enabled to discriminate more accurately the 
character of his motives and aims. Indeed, he is conscious, 
from this source, of an exploring and inquisitorial power in 
these doctrines which he had not only never experienced, but 
had never conceived, under any other. He feels them continu- 
ally probing his affections and thoughts to the quick, detecting 
the fallacies induced upon his understanding by an evil love, and 
stripping off the disguises which falsify the real ends of his 
conduct. In this respect he finds the writings of Swedenborg 
without a parallel. Whatever may have been his previous 
acquaintance with works devoted to the trial of gracious affec- 
tions, he has never met with any thing that so searches his soul 
'as with a lighted candle' — that so acts upon him with 'the 
refiner's fire and the fuller's soap' — as the divine casuistry 
which is brought to bear upon his latent evils in these doctrines. 
This I can attest from my own experience, and I am confirmed 
in it by the uniform testimony of all those who have received 
them. 

" Why should not the system be practical, when the crown 
of its moral lessons is, that Truth is of no avail except so far 
as it is transcribed into Life — that the Light of an angel may 
co-exist with the Love of a fiend — that if the inner proprium 
of his being, or his Will, be not leavened with the celestial 
influx, while his Understanding is illuminated, he incurs the 
tremendous peril of profanation, which opens the lowest pit of 
hell to the soul? Why should it not be practical, when it 
brin<rs one to the assurance of the most intimate connection 



Or PEOF. GEORGE BUSH. 177 

with spirits, both celestial and infernal, and teaches him that as 
he yields to the influences of the one or the other, he acquires 
a corresponding nature, and either appoints for himself a heri- 
tage of woe with the lost, or lays up a life in the bosom of 
angels in heaven ? Why should it not be practical, when it 
humbles him in the dust by the assertion of an innate depravity 
that has seized upon the heart's core of his moral being, and 
brought him into native alliance with the foulest spirits of the 
universe, and when its most elementary teaching is, that he has 
no good of his own — that he can do no good of himself — 
that by the law not merely of his redemption, but of his crea- 
tion, he is momentarily dependent on the Divine influx for 
every emotion, affection, and impulse that savors of heaven and 
tends to lift him thither? 

" It is unquestionably true, however, that the piety inculcated 
by the doctrines of the New Church is of a more genial and 
cheerful stamp than that which is usually found under the aus- 
pices of the prevailing creeds, because the doctrines impart a 
higher and sublimer view of the infinite Love and Benignity 
of the Lord towards the human race, as willing the salvation 
of all, and ordering every event of his Providence with a view 
to eternal ends of Mercy in regard to each individual, and in- 
cessantly aiming to withhold him from hell, so far as it can be 
done consistently with his moral freedom.* So it imparts also 
a new view of death, and its sequences, or in other words, of 
our relation to the spiritual sphere. Death is, in this system, 
but a continuation of life, or a new step in the progress of the 
soul to its grand destination. The transition from this world 
to the next is but the rupture of the thin veil which separates, 
as it were, two apartments of the same house. It is but bring- 
ing us into open and sensible communication with those with 
whom we have been through life in real but unconscious asso- 
ciation: and the development of the interior love, which con- 
stitutes our true character, merely perfects the union into Avhich 
we enter with all congenial souls. As we are taught moreover 
that the universal kingdom of the Lord is a kingdom of uses, 
and as these uses are to be accomplished in fulfilling all the 
functions created by the thousand-fold relations of domestic, 
social, and civil life, no countenance is given to an ascetic or 
monastic style of living, but all are pressed to an active and 
cheerful, but upright, participation in the various callings which 

* See Swedenborg's Arcana Ccelestia, n. 995 ; Spiritual Diary, n. 3G32. 



178 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

result from the constitution of societj'.* In a word, its entire 
adaptations and provisions are calculated to form a religious 
character, deep, intelligent, enlightened, practical, serene, and 
full of hope. How far its benign tendencies are actually real- 
ized in the lives of its professors, I will not venture to affirm ; 
but sure I am they will with one voice confess that if there be 
any deficiency on this score, it is not in the system, but in 
themselves, and that they need no more solemn admonitions as 
to the consequences of their short-comings than those which 
are breathed into their inmost minds by the sanctions insepara- 
ble from the truths of their faith. 

" On the whole, I venture to entertain the hope, that the ver- 
dict pronounced upon the foregoing recital will not be, that I 
have exchanged the substance for the shadow of truth. In re- 
ceding from the ground formerly occupied in respect to the 
tenets of my religious faith, I have been governed by evidence 
which has been to my own mind ample and imperative. The re- 
sult has cost me a struggle which it is not easy for another to ap- 
preciate, unless he has been made the subject of a similar experi- 
ence. The firmness which is requisite to enable one to act out 
fully his fidelity to truth, does not annihilate the susceptibilities 
of the heart to the revolted sympathy of friends, to the with- 
drawal of confidence, to innuendoes of a mind unhinged, to harsh 
imputations, and to pity misplaced. Yet, in the midst of all, I am 
sustained by the consciousness, that, in every step I have taken, 
the actuating motive and the consequent course have been such 
as, if rightly appreciated, to entitle me to the continued respect 
of every lover of truth. It is impossible for a fair and gener- 
ous mind to look with unfeeling eye on the struggles of an 
honest spirit pressing to the attainment of divine knowledge, 
and making a willing sacrifice of friendship, reputation, gain 
— every thing that flesh holds dear — in proof of the sincerity 
and sanctity of its promptings. For every expression of kindly 
sentiment evinced by liberal minds, I am bound to be, and am, 
truly grateful. But I need it not for the sustaining of my own 
spirit in the sphere of faith into which it has come. My con- I 
fidence has a higher patronage. The attainment of sublimer 
views of truth, witnessed to consciousness by their own intrin- 
sic light, cannot well fail to be accompanied by a peace flowing 
down from its eternal fountain, and richly compensating all in- 
ferior losses and regrets. To the consolation arising from this 

*See Swcdenborg's Doctrine of the New Jerusalem, n. 126. 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 179 

source I would be devoutly thankful to the Divine Goodness 
for being able to say that I am not a stranger." 

These extracts from the published writings of Pro- 
fessor Bush will afford the reader a pretty full and clear 
view of his religious faith and belief, which we have 
no doubt cheered and sustained him in his hour of 
death. Although they diverge widely from the con- 
victions he was under in his earlier years, they seem 
nevertheless to have been based, not on hasty conclu- 
sions or an excited imagination, but upon deep and 
mature investigation and reflection. 

It may well be asked " What is truth ?" We search 
for it in divers ways and view it as the chameleon is 
viewed, under divers colors, but who is or can be satis- 
fied of possessing it without he feels the Divine hand 
that wields it impressing it upon his heart ? But the 
heart in all bosoms but the Divine, has become corrupt 
through self-love. It is, therefore, prone to desire its 
own gratification, and, notwithstanding it may feel a 
willingness to embrace truth, it is apt to select that 
which is tolerant of its propensities. The chameleon 
will continue to be viewed in a light that reflects the 
color desired, until the heart is changed, and feels that 
it has nothing to do but to accept and obey the truth 
as the Lord presents it. Such was the noble spirit 
which ever actuated the subject of this memoir, espe- 
cially in this interesting period of the change of his 
theological opinions. 

We have no desire to eulogize our friend. His 
modest spirit would rebuke us were we to attempt to 
do so. If we can succeed in drawing his portrait as 
he stood in life, it will need no extraneous coloring to 
image a man of rare virtues. 

With a firmness of purpose not easily shaken, he 
was yet kind, considerate and conciliatory in all the 
relations of life ; lending a listening ear and a helping 
hand to all petitions for his advice or his charity. Studi- 
ous never to give offence or to wound the feelings of 
others, his words seemed chosen to cheer and to en- 



180 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

courage the afflicted, and gently to instruct and reform 
the erring. Truthful to an exactness that bordered 
neither on amplification nor concealment, he spoke 
upon all subjects that engaged his attention, with an 
emphasis that forced conviction upon his listeners that 
he himself, at'least, believed what he was advancing. N 

Fearless and uncompromising where truth was at 
stake, with all his suavity of manner and courteous re- 
gard for his opponent, he would yet rise in its defence 
with an indomitable and unyielding force of will. He 
possessed little or nothing of what is termed imagina- 
tion or creative fancy. His mind dwelt in substantial 
realities. He was a matter-of-fact * man that rarely 
originated a new thought ; but let an idea be started, 
and if the game was worthy, he never ceased following 
it as long as it yielded any scent of truth. 

His religious faith was full and complete. He saw 
and felt the necessity of regeneration, or the re-creation 
of the natural man and the working of the Divine 
Spirit within him to accomplish this end. The Church 
was to him a necessary existence, without which 
heaven and earth were eternally severed. It is the 
link forged by the Lord to bind man to his Creator; 
nor is it difficult to lay hold of this chain and be for- 
ever united to the Divine Love and Wisdom. 

In his earlier acquaintance with the New Church 
writings he rested rather in the truth than in the love 
principle, and his efforts were directed to the setting 
forth of the light as it broke upon his own vision, less 
regardful, perhaps, of the more vital principle of charity. 
But subsequently and for some time before his death, 
he became more fully imbued with the spirit of divine 
love, and seemed to have reached a higher and more 
celestial sphere of thought and feeling. He manifested 
more desire in his ministry to pour out his heart in 
spontaneous prayer. The prescribed form of prayer 
adopted by the New Church was not enough to satisfy 
the devotion of his soul to God ; and he often lamented 
that so many were contented to rest in the inviting yet 



OP PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 181 

dazzling truths of the new dispensation, to the neglect 
of the more life-giving principles which these truths 
are designed to produce in the heart. 

In closing our remarks, and as confirmatory of our 
statement, we desire to add the testimony of one 
whose sectarian bias will not be likely to give to his 
opinions the suspicion of party coloring. We copy 
from an address by the Rev. E. G. Holland, on " The 
Life, Literature, and Religious Views of the Rev. Pro- 
fessor George Bush, given at Clinton Hall, New York, 
16 Oct. 1859." 

We have extracted from the address so much only 
as we can find room for, and as being most appropri- 
ate to our immediate object. 

" A good man, a learned man, and, in several respects, a 
great man, has left us. A teacher of religion by his vocal 
ministry, and by many books, a teacher of new views well 
understood and conscientiously held, a man of the most real 
and genuine courtesy, a very humane, devout, and generous 
spirit, has gone into those unseen spheres of existence which 
to him were so real whilst he tarried with us in the flesh. 
Having been for many years personally acquainted with Pro- 
fessor Bush, I welcome his name as a profitable theme, the 
long and faithful life of a superior man in whom the purely re- 
ligious interest was always paramount and controlling. As 
in his life, so in history, this element has been the most com- 
manding, and productive of great results. A higher order of 
interest, a halo more divine, invests the able representative of 
Religion, than that in which the representative of Art, of 
Ruling, of Philosophy or Science, may be said to stand; for 
that which he represents is highest of all. 

" But in this department, our lamented friend was perhaps 
not so much creative, not so originative, as logical, learned, 
and expository, seeing always the results of the ideas he em- 
braced. As an expounder of the Hebrew of the Old Testa- 
ment, I well remember to have heard him quoted in my school 
days again and again in the pulpits of our country as high au- 
thority, many said higher in Hebrew learning than Moses 
Stuart, of Andover, who seemed always to have a peculiar 
genius for words and philology. He probably had wider range 
of culture. No one has ever questioned the profundity of his 
16 



182 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

learning, but I observed that so soon as he changed his theo- 
logical views, the pulpits and ministers of the various sects 
pretty generally ceased to quote him as authority in matters of 
Hebrew criticism and biblical interpretation. A general and 
ominous silence was spread around him. Strong yet is the in- 
fluence of party and of sect over justice and truth. Still his 
notes on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, etc., making in all seven 
volumes, are now in use among the bible-classes of the Pres- 
byterian, Congregational, and other religious bodies, from 
wdiose theology Professor Bush afterwards so manfully dis- 
sented. 

***** 

" The first public tendency, fully manifest, to rise above the 
horizon of orthodoxy, was embodied in a monthly magazine, 
entitled the ' Hierophant,' in 1844, in which, among his pecu- 
liar views, he announced his belief most fully in two special 
doctrines, the non-resurrection of the material body, and that, 
in the right comprehension of the Prophetic Symbols, the doc- 
trine of a Literal Conflagration of the heavens and the earth is 
nowhere taught, nor indeed that of any other natural catas- 
trophe. If any such catastrophe, he argued, is to befall the 
heaven and the earth, the evidences for it must now lie in the 
heavens and the earth, and that the place to find these proofs 
is not the Scriptures of either Testament, but astronomy, 
speaking through its chosen apostles and prophets, such as 
Newton, LaPlace and Herschel. John of the Apocalypse was 
indeed no astronomer, and could not translate those evidences 
of natural catastrophies, which, as prophecies, must either lie 
in the structure of the creation itself, or be non-existent. The 
Resurrection he never denied ; but rejecting the lower and 
material form of this doctrine, he asserted the higher and 
spiritual form of it, bringing to his aid the fulness of scriptural 
evidence, in thus solving the method involved in the problem 
of our immortality. 

"It was in 1844, the same year the ' Hierophant' was started, 
that his ' Anastasis,' or treatise on the Resurrection appeared, 
a work of much thought and learning, but destined from the 
first to draw a line of separation, strongly defined, between 
himself and the majority of the christian sects. The agree- 
ment between the conclusions of this book and the teachings of 
Emanuel Swedenborg, was so striking that many regarded 
him as a disciple of that wonderful and as yet almost unac- 
countable Seer. But such was not the fact. He had read 



OF PROF. GEOPGE BUSH. 183 

nothing of Swedenborg, looked upon' Iiim a^ a mere visionary; 
but by the suggestion of a lady who saw and declared to him 
this coincidence of views, he examined the opinions of this 
learned teacher, and in 1845, avowed full belief in his general 
doctrines and in his mission to these Ages as the Herald of a 
New Church, a New Dispensation of Spiritual Light, wherein 
the Scriptures, the Creation, and Human Lite shall be newly 
interpreted. 

" To the exposition and defence of these views, Professor 
Bush devoted the remainder of his life. It was easy to see 
the deep sincerity in which he wrought. His eye, his face, his 
conversation were full of it. I could not unite with him in the 
admission of authority as connected with the reports of Swe- 
denborg from the Spirit World; but I could always see that 
many of those reports are, in a fact-form, the ablest illustra- 
tions of the Laws of the Human Mind. I know of no teacher 
who has taught so much as he, of that Spiritual Philosophy to 
which the depths of human consciousness and experience must 
respond in harmonious affirmation. Consistently, persistently, 
he continued to be, of these doctrines the expounder and de- 
fender. That, in the new faith, he had won for himself a much 
wider horizon of philosophy, and of religious contemplation, 
than Orthodoxy could ever have afforded him, I cannot for a 
moment doubt; that he lost anything in the esteem of the 
great mass of persons whose opinions may be justly distin- 
guished from prejudices, it were folly to suppose. Pie was 
convinced by evidences ; but how differently the same evi- 
dences affect different minds ! 

***** 

" I made the acquaintance of this most noble man, Geo. Bush, 
in the summer of 1847. Since that time we have often met, and 
in various conversations developed and exchanged our mutual 
thoughts to no ordinary extent. I valued him highly as a per- 
sonal friend ; as a man of profound culture ; as a lover of real- 
ity and truth ; as an agreeable companion to all whom he met ; 
a noble type of the Christian gentleman, before whom the 
Chesterfields and D'Orsays of cultivated life are emptiness 
and vanity. 

" Without pretensions in manner, and extremely modest in 
deportment, he rose into a commanding firmness and power of 
will and reason, when subjects and occasions demanded or 
tended to inspire these qualities. In the common affairs of life, 
he was remarkable for good sense and punctuality ; indeed, the 



184 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

words that make the summary of his traits are Manliness and 
Fidelity. A nice discrimination of truth entered into all his 
statements, and with him there was no overstatement or under- 
statement, nothing apparently above or below his exact con- 
viction ; and the same delicate sense of exact truth and right 
seemed to adjust and limit his ordinary actions. As a writer he 
had a clear, eloquent, and commanding use of language. 
* * * * 

" His noble forehead spoke his intellect, his form and bearing 
told of his noble manhood, his genial expression announced a 
warm and living heart that never had known corruption, and 
the impression made by his presence was, that in him one met 
an incarnation of Truth and Conscience. His son, the fruit of 
his first marriage, had some years since gone before him. A 
wife and two children are now left to mourn his loss. But the 
New Church people are too serene and hopeful in their phi- 
losophy of death, to make what the world calls good mourners. 
Death is indeed a good angel. It is like a cloud ; we see one 
side of it only, the side turned earthward and downward; but 
oh, could we see the higher and heavenward side of this cloud, 
I feel assured that golden light and golden love would be found 
resting upon it! I feel that the faithful man is gone in peace, 
that from the full germ of heaven in him much heaven has 
evolved and must evolve in growing brightness. 

M We struggle in the gross world of matter, feeling meantime 
that a certain angelhood links us to higher worlds. Voices 
mysterious haunt us through life's lowly vale. The soul turns 
to this unknown as the needle to the pole, not knowing its reasons 
for so doing. Without this spirit-world, without this future state, 
the world that now is becomes to reason the wildest riddle, the 
all-confounding enigma ; but with that finale, all suffering and 
incompleteness may be explained. I will then say, Cheer up, 
ye sons of toil and care ; you inherit from a wealthy Father. 
Your experiences, however sad, shall yet come into useful play 
and service ; avoid sin ; it shall mar the beauty of the house you 
now live in ; of the house you shall hereafter live in, the fu- 
ture body; conquer appetite to reason ; govern passion ; purify, 
deify, or make divine so far as possible your human nature ; 
and lake our fresh rising suns, our eternal stars, and the heart's 
sometime overflowing gladness, as the type and prelibation of. 
what awaits you in the Father's house." 



REMINISCENCES, ETC. 

BY KEV. WILLIAM B. HAYDEN. 

Portland, March 28, 1860. 
Otis Clapp, Esq., Boston. 

Dear Sir, — Your request to contribute a paper of 
" Recollections" to the forthcoming Biography of Pro- 
fessor Bash has been germinating in my mind a num- 
ber of weeks. Biography has never been a prominent 
study with me, and my usual habits of composition fit 
me bat very poorly indeed to be a delineator of charac- 
ter. But 1 feel that the subject has other claims upon 
me than those which are purely literary, and therefore 
am willing to respond cheerfully to your request by jot- 
ting down a few things that occur in scanning the 
memory of the past. 

My acquaintance with the Professor commenced in 
New York, in 1835, a few years after he had received 
the appointment of Professor of Hebrew in the New 
York University. At that time he was engaged, I 
think, on a commentary on the Book of Psalms — a 
work never completed, for want of sufficient patronage; 
one number only having been given to the public. His 
Hebrew Grammar had just been published, while his 
work on the Millennium, the Life of Mohammed, and 
Notes on Genesis and Exodus, were already before 
the public, and he was enjoying the extensive literary 
reputation those works had given him. This reputa- 
tion, as is well known, was of a twofold character. By 
the public generally he was regarded as an elegant and 
eloquent writer on theological and historical subjects ; 
while in the church, and by members of his own pro- 
1G* 



186 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

fession, he was held in the highest estimation for hia 
scholarship in Oriental and Biblical literature. Hap- 
pening to be in a situation at that time which enabled 
me to become somewhat familiar with the current 
opinion of the Presbyterian Church and religious pub- 
lic, I think those who remember those times well will 
consider it no exaggeration for me to say that there 
were not more than two or three individuals who, in 
either of these respects, were then placed before him. 

But his private qualities were even more attractive 
than those by which he was chiefly known to the pub- 
lic. His conversational powers were remarkable, while 
his amiable disposition and simplicity of manners ren- 
dered him accessible to all, making the youthful and 
the timid soon feel at home with him. His fund of 
knowledge seemed exhaustless, and few things appear- 
ed to afford him more pleasure than to communicate 
it to those who had a desire to learn. 

At the time of which I now speak, I think his studies 
were directed mainly to subjects connected with the 
duties of his Professorship, and those strictly collateral 
to them ; — the oriental languages, antiquities and lit- 
erature. These included the Syriac, Samaritan, Chal- 
dee and Arabic ; and my impression is that he also 
attained to a slight knowledge of the Persian. But 
while engaged principally in these labors his range of 
general reading was very extensive, embracing, as it 
always seemed to those who held intercourse with him, 
almost every branch of human inquiry. As one of his 
learned contemporaries* remarked, " his mind was om- 
nivorous," and devoured every thing it came in con- 
tact with. Gifted with a retentive memory, and ready 
on any subject, all the stores of literature and science 
seemed opened to him; while the delight of seeking 
information from him was continually enhanced by 
the assurance which the inquirer felt that it was no 
less a pleasure to him to impart it. He enjoyed among 
his friends the reputation, and not unfrequently the 

* llcv. Dr. Bellows, of New York. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSIT. 187 

agnomen, of " Walking Library," and sometimes of 
" Encyclopedia." To him all our interesting literary 
questions were referred ; he was the solver of doubts 
and the explainer of mysteries. In those days he im- 
pressed me as one thoroughly delivered up to the 
" student life" more than any other person I ever met. 

Thus things continued for nearly ten years ; during 
which time he published his Notes on Leviticus, edited 
a new and improved Bible Atlas, prepared the royal 
octavo volume of " Scripture Illustrations " published 
in connection with the " Comprehensive Commentary" 
of Dr. Jenks, and, in 1842, commenced a theological 
periodical called the Hierophant. 

About, or a little before this time, he removed his 
study from the University Building on Washington 
Square, and took rooms in the third story of the " Ob- 
server Building," erected by his friends, the Morse 
Brothers, in Nassau street. Thither he transferred his 
library, collected his books and manuscripts around 
him, and sat himself down to literature about as com- 
pletely as any man of our day. Those who have visit- 
ed that " sanctum" while occupied by him during the 
seven years from 1841 to 1848, will not readily forget 
it. Dibdin would have been delighted to have found 
it. It was a perfect den of learning. And there the 
Professor might be found at almost any time of the day 
or night, as the presiding genius of the place ; walled 
in by books, thoroughly fortified within ramparts of 
literature. Shelved on both sides and at either end, 
and filled to the ceiling. Nothing to be seen but the 
backs of volumes. History, science, Biblical criticism, 
voyages and travels, with grammars, chrestomathies, 
lexicons, dictionaries in all known tongues, with many, 
to the simple minded, entirely unknown. With irreg- 
ular piles on the floor, of those for which no room 
could be found on the shelves. 

As you opened the door upon him thus encamped, 
a scene somewhat unique and striking presented itself. 
You stepped at once from the present into the past. 



188 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

Things in the room wore an aspect of antiquity. There 
sat before yon the Professor — his hair already white 
with advancing years, his eyes defended with large 
glasses, and only his head and shoulders visible above 
the heaps of volumes — entrenched behind the written 
wisdom of ages. In front he was defended by a breast- 
work at least three, feet high, from which bristled at 
you ancient tomes of all sizes, and pointing in all pos- 
sible directions. Some of them wide open, some en- 
tirely closed, others braced partly open. Some in vel- 
lum and red edges, others in black leather. Ponderous 
folios of the seventeenth century, thick small quartos 
of the eighteenth, with octavos and duodecimos of 
later date in unlimited profusion ; — the whole forming 
around him a kind of literary Gibraltar, which none 
but a stout heart would thii 
but few might hope to carry. 

On the outside of the door was the city of New 
York, with its rushing tide of busy, tumultuous life ; 
on the inside was this strong castle of quiet and solemn 
study. Your first thought, probably, was of the mid- 
dle ages, of a monk, and a monastery. But as you 
closed the door and sat down, that impression soon 
wore away, and you found that you were only in the 
presence of what the past had worthy to record, and 
the companion of one who, while he knew something 
of the past, yet lived in the moving and thinking pres- 
ent. 

Though to a stranger there was an air of confusion 
in the distribution of his books about the room, yet J 
think to the Professor they had a certain system and 
order of arrangement : like the types in a printer's case; 
which appears like disorder itself to any but a printer, 
while to his busy and well-trained hand it presents the 
letters oftenest wanted always nearest his reach. So 
with the Professor's books ; those most frequently re- 
quired for reference were placed where he could lay his 
hand upon them without rising from his seat ; — a habit 
which all literary men will readily understand. 



OF PROF. CEORGE BUSH. 189 

The chance was that whenever your visit might 
occur, you would meet there some one, though not 
recognized in person, whose name, when it was an- 
nounced to you, would be familiar from its publicity. 
It could hardly fail to be that of a celebrity of some 
kind. For in those days that room was the resort of 
inquiring and ingenious minds from most parts of our 
country, as well as, frequently, of visitors from abroad. 
There you would meet ministers, professors, returned 
missionaries, editors, men of science, statesmen, pub- 
lic lecturers, lawyers, physicians, travellers, men of all 
classes, indeed, who could lay any claim to intellectual 
cultivation, or felt an active interest in any department 
of rational thought. I think he had a wider range of 
intellectual sympathy, and enjoyed a larger intercourse 
with literary and professional men in consequence, than 
any other one I have ever known. 

With the leading book-stores of the city he kept up 
a constant intercourse. No literary man in the coun- 
try was better known, or had more personal friends and 
acquaintances among the book-sellers ; he was regard- 
ed by them as almost one of " the trade ; " and was 
familiar with all the important movements going on 
among them. He was frequently consulted by them 
in regard to the character and merits of literary works, 
and great reliance was placed on his judgment. Not 
a few important books, especially of German authors, 
have been reprinted in this country as the results of 
his recommendation or advice. It was his habit to 
visit the book-stores daily, usually in the afternoon, 
after having broken up from his hours of morning 
study. And in this way he kept himself thoroughly 
" posted up " in the current literature of his time. He 
was perfectly familiar with every thing going on in this 
line. Hardly a book came from the press that escaped 
his notice. Not merely the title page, but generally 
the leading thoughts of the preface, with, the subjects 
of the prominent chapters, were rapidly searched out 
by him while poring over the counters in his daily 



190 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

visits. And he possessed a remarkable faculty of 
carrying away with him, and retaining in his memory, 
the main ideas and drift of a book, on what would 
seem to others a very brief and cursory examination. 
His previous knowledge enabling him at once to as- 
sign it its relative place in literature, as well as to 
judge of its merits. 

The auction stores, also, came in for a share of his 
attention. No important sale of books passed by 
without his notice. And from the catalogues of pri- 
vate libraries, or in consignments from London and 
Paris, there presented, he frequently made additions to 
his own shelves of rare and valuable works. 

Several of the leading publishing houses were in the 
habit of presenting him the works they issued from the 
press ; and some of the best known American authors, 
Mr. Irving among them, though personally unacquaint- 
ed with him, sent him sets of their writings. If the 
books thus acquired and collected by him, for a period 
of thirty years, had been allowed to accumulate in his 
possession, I think that at his decease he would have 
left one of the largest private libraries in the country, 
and one which to Biblical scholars, and students of 
exegesis, would have been especially valuable. But as 
soon as he had received the New Church doctrines he 
began to sell from them, and allowed them gradually 
to diminish. At one time, I know that his library was 
the reliance of many scholars in different parts of the 
country, for books in the Syriac and Arabic languages ; 
as works in those languages were then little imported, 
and very difficult of access. 

As I remember him in those days, his great men- 
tal characteristic was rationality. He did not allow 
himself to get rutted in any peculiar or persuasive line 
of thought. He was publicly committed to, and from 
conviction held, the Presbyterian views of theology ; 
but he was a free thinker, in a good sense, and a free 
inquirer on all subjects. His mind seemed open in 
every direction, ready for a new thought or another 



OP PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 191 

view from whatever quarter. I never discussed impor- 
tant subjects with a person who would more patiently 
hear or fairly weigh the opposing opinion of another; 
and this characteristic remained with him as long as he 
continued in the natural world. With all his freedom 
of thought and range of inquiry, he was a man of 
deep, strong, and abiding convictions. His faith in the 
grand truths of religion, in Divine Revelation, and in 
the plenary inspiration of the Holy Scriptures, always 
remained remarkably firm. I do not think he ever ex- 
perienced a period of real doubt. He frequently took 
to pieces and re-examined the foundations of his belief, 
only to construct them again of more polished stones, 
and lay them in a more perfect cement. His habits 
of thought were progressive and constructive, and one 
intimate with the course of his mind could easily see 
that he was steadily moving forward towards greater 
comprehensiveness and maturity of opinion on all the 
higher subjects of thought. He has often expressed to 
me the strong desire he used to feel to discover genuine 
truth, and the real meaning of sacred Scripture ; and 
of the intention which he early formed of being true 
to his convictions, of following wheresoever the truth 
might lead him, regardless of worldly considerations. 
And his most intimate acquaintances, I think, will 
confirm my testimony that this was a habit of action 
which never forsook him. 

In 1842, as above mentioned, he commenced the 
publication of the " Hierophant ; or Monthly Expositor 
of Sacred Symbols and Prophecy." In 1843 he issued 
; ' The Valley of Vision," on Ezekiel's prophecy, and 
H Prophetic Visions of Daniel" — two pamphlets. His 
" Anastasis," or Work on the Doctrine of the Resur- 
rection, appeared in the latter part of 1844; the little 
book " On the Resurrection of Christ" came early in 
1845; followed, the same year, by his treatise " On the 
Soul ; " while the publication of the " Swedenborg 
Library " was commenced in 1846. 

The succession of these works shows the changes his 



192 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

mind passed through in that short interval. It was to 
him a period of the most active thought and inquiry; 
while every important thought seems to have led on to 
a conviction, and every conviction became a step of 
progress. Those four years mark his complete transi- 
tion from the « Old Church " to the " New." An anal- 
ysis of the contents of those works, here, would be an 
encroachment on the province of his biographer. I 
refer to them, however, because their publication forms 
part of my recollection of him, and because my own 
mind followed his, though at a little distance behind, 
through a similar change of convictions. His work on 
the Resurrection, I think, was among the first things 
that drew my mind in the direction of the New Jerusa- 
lem ; and soon after he became a believer in the doc- 
trines, I began to read them, and, I need hardly add, 
became a receiver about as rapidly as I read. 

From this time, for a number of years, it was my 
habit to see him several times a week, indeed almost 
daily. I remember the glow and animation of his feel- 
ings at the discovery of these new treasures of truth. He 
at once set himself to a thorough perusal of Swede n- 
borg's writings, and every time we met he would have 
some new pearl, some new interesting idea, or striking 
principle of truth, which he had found as he was read- 
ing. I do not doubt but if all our conversations could 
be recalled verbatim it would be found that he had re- 
ported to me the principal topics and doctrines of the 
Arcana Celestia, as he passed along through its volumes. 

The effect these doctrines produced on his mind is 
well known to the public through his printed works. 
The discovery of so much rational and spiritual truth 
filled him with the highest satisfaction and delight ; but 
yet, as may well be imagined, the movement to his new 
theological and religious position was not effected with- 
out great suffering in his natural feelings. This arose 
chiefly from the severing of many cherished social con- 
nections, and those bonds of religious sympathy and 
friendship in which he was united to so large a circle. 



OP PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 193 

The alienation of former friends he always felt most 
keenly; and the more so because while his affection 
and esteem towards them remained, for the most part, 
the same, they turned away from him for nothing else 
than having obeyed the Master's voice in coming to 
the acknowledgment of a higher degree of His Divine 
Truth. 

I remember well the occasion when, having just re- 
turned from a meeting of the Association of Ministers, 
of which he was a member, he told me that he had come 
to the conclusion he could no longer remain with them, 
but should be obliged to withdraw. It was an associa- 
tion composed of the Presbyterian Ministers of New 
York City (and perhaps Brooklyn), with several of the 
professors of the University ; his old colleagues, literary 
associates, fellow-students, and religious brethren. It 
was to him the sundering of some very strong ties : the 
more so perhaps to him at that moment, as, being with- 
out a family, and living entirely alone in a great city, 
these social and literary gatherings had been to him in 
the place of fireside associations. But he resolved to 
make the sacrifice and stand for the cause of truth. It 
was not long subsequent to the publication of his work 
on the Resurrection. And even for the sentiments 
promulgated in that, he found among them almost an 
entire withdrawal of sympathy from him ; while some 
of his brethren, prominent members of the Association, 
had denounced his work from the pulpit. Discussion 
of his opinions he could easily abide. As he was so 
thoroughly reasonable himself he could afford to be 
widely liberal. But the withdrawal of sympathy and 
personal friendship on account of his opinions forced 
him to a separation. He was the more strongly im- 
pelled to this step by the fact that, in the mean time, 
having become somewhat acquainted with Sweden- 
borg's writings, \\e i^qs, conscious of holding views still 
further removed frorrj. his associates than those already 
put forth in his book. 

With many of his former associates, however, in the 
17 



194 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

Presbyterian church, he continued on terms of intimacy 
and strong personal friendship, for years afterwards, and 
indeed, to the end of his stay among us. Such were his 
relations to his two eminent colleagues in the Univer- 
sal v. Professor Taylor Lewis, .and Professor Tappan;* 
as well as Rev. Dr. Asa D. Smith, of New York, and the 
late Rev. Dr. Woods, of Andover. 

But the loss of private friendship was not the only 
sacrifice he was called upon to make in the sacred cause 
o'f Truth. No less injury was done to his pecuniary 
prospects by his declaration in favor of the Heavenly 
Doctrines. At that time, as he told me, he was receiving 
an income of about eight hundred dollars a year from 
his various publications, derived principally from his 
" Notes " on Books of the Old Testament, which were 
then widely in use among teachers in Sabbath schools. 
As soon, however, as this change in his views became 
known, the circulation of his works not only suddenly 
diminished, but came almost to a full stop, yielding 
him, thereafter, merely from fifty to seventy-five dollars 
a year. And as his invitations to occupy the pulpits 
of his former denomination, which had been a source 
of some income to him, of course also at once ceased, 
he may truly be said to have parted with his living in 
following his convictions of duty. And for some time 
he suffered no little practical annoyance and embarrass- 
ment from this source. But in all his troubles he was 
wonderfully sustained from above ; with no thought of 
looking back, but all the while ascending to a higher and 
clearer region of faith. 

* My memory of him for the last ten years is more in 
common with others, and therefore needs not to be re- 
cited. I have endeavored to put down mainly such 
things relating to him as would most likely escape the 
notice of others, who may favor his biographer with 
their contributions. In an intercouse of twenty-five 
years, the longest and most intimate literary friendship 
I remember to have enjoyed with any other one, it is 

* Now President of the University of the State of Michigan. 



OP TltOF. GEORGE BUSH. 195 

probable that my knowledge may extend to some par- 
ticulars of his life unknown to the generality of his ac- 
quaintance, and I have felt therefore that our friendship, 
and justice to his memory, required that these slight 
memorabilia should be penned, both as a testimonial 
of regard and affection for one now in the spiritual 
world, and, that thus they may be placed permanently 
in reach of his numerous friends. 

It remains for me to add but one word more. How 
his faith in the New Church Doctrines continued to 
grow, is known to nearly all. Towards the close of his 
stay in the natural world his mind seemed to open 
more and more towards heaven. His perceptions of 
the great Doctrines of the Spiritual Sense of the Word 
became clearer, and, as a consequence, his conviction 
of their entire and transcendent truthfulness proportion- 
ally stronger; while he felt himself drawn to his brethren 
in all parts of the New Church by the deepest sympathy 
and the warmest emotions of Christian love. 

In my last interview with him, which took place at 
Brooklyn, in November, 1858, I could observe some 
changes, all which, however, appeared to be only the 
ripening of his brighter qualities. I do not think he 
ever loved controversy except as an instrument for the 
discovery or establishment of truth; but now his liking 
for it he declared to be gone. Charily was now the 
theme to which his mind was directed. The implanta- 
tion of good seemed to him so incomparably more im- 
portant than any other object, that he desired to waste 
none of his remaining energies on any minor end. His 
whole character had become softened and spiritualized; 
and, although then but slightly ill, he seemed like one 
getting ready to depart. How freely he could converse 
about the Father's house, about the spiritual world, and 
about life and usefulness in that world ! He expressed 
great love for all followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
especially for those who in the Divine Mercy have been 
led to receive and acknowledge him in this His second 
coming ; and his heart yearned for a closer union with 



196 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

his brethren of the New Church, — for a deeper spirit- 
ual sympathy, and a wider, fuller social intercourse with 
them. And as in his last months, as I know, his desires 
went forth thus towards all receivers of the Heavenly 
Doctrines, so, as I feel assured, there was a universal 
response from them, of affection, and sympathy, and 
respect towards him. 

Very truly and sincerely yours, 

William B. Hayden. 



RECOLLECTIONS AND REFLECTIONS. 

BY N. F. CABELL, ESQ. 

[The following communication will be read with interest, 
being from a literary friend who had much correspondence with 
the Professor, and who, while assimilating heartily with him in 
the truth in general, yet had occasion to differ from him on 
some points of special interest.] 

Warminster, Nelson County, Va., June, 1860. 

My dear Sir, — You request that I would call up and 
put in writing, any recollections of my intercourse with 
the late Professor Bush, that I may deem worthy of 
presentation. I have accordingly made the attempt, 
and am myself rather surprised at the penury of the 
result. 

I had the sincerest admiration for the mental charac- 
ter and attainments of the man, and for much — I may 
not say all — of what he wrote. His ardent love of 
truth, the perseverance with which he sought it, the 
candor and boldness with which he acknowledged it 
when discovered, — all commanded my respect. Many 
of those without, who felt no sympathy with his later 
creed, have spoken of the gallantry with which he came 
forward to do battle in behalf of a system which had 
been put to the ban by the great body of his own order, 
thereby putting in peril both his popularity as a minister, 
and his literary reputation. However rare the instances 
of such conduct, our friend would have been the last to 
accept the compliment implied in such a term. Here 
was indeed fidelity to convictions, and openness in their 
avowal. This he regarded as simple obedience to the 
voice of conscience, and in his readiness to make the 
above or any other sacrifice which that might call for, 
17* 



198 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

he exhibited that trust in Providence which is more fre- 
quently commended than acted on. 

He did more. That which he had so freely received 
he felt bound as freely to give ; and to this he conse- 
crated the remainder of his life and strength. The 
firmness with which he adhered to this purpose in a 
self-seeking age, showed an earnest regard for the wel- 
fare of his fellow-men. None knew better than he that 
the only stable foundation of public prosperity is the 
Faith and Life of genuine Christianity, and none of us, I 
hope, will soon forget the strong hand with which he de- 
fended, and the zeal with which he labored to propagate 
that system which he believed to be the last hope of the 
world. All these things entitle him to the character of a 
" Witness for the Truth," and an honorable place in the 
history of the church. But they are as well or better 
known to others who had more frequent opportunities 
of personal intercourse with him, and I make no doubt 
will receive justice at their hands. 

When I tell you, that I never met with him except 
during two occasional visits to the city of New York, 
you might infer, not only that I have but little to impart 
that would properly come under the head of reminis- 
cences, but that my acquaintance with him must neces- 
sarily have been slight. I did not so regard it myself. 
For these interviews, brief or interrupted as they were, 
were not my sole means of knowing him, but served 
rather to confirm impressions derived from his general 
reputation and some previous epistolary correspondence. 
That we should have personally met at all was a 
thing rather desired than expected. For we lived far 
apart ; my occasions rarely carried me to the North, and 
he never came South. Our correspondence, however, 
which commenced rather unexpectedly, was sustained 
for several years, quite regularly in its early stages, and 
continued, with some intervals of suspension, until near 
the close of his career. It was, on both sides, of a 
very friendly and unreserved character — one in which 
the present writer took much pleasure, and by which 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 199 

he felt highly honored. Nearly all of his letters to my- 
self have been preserved: a few only of a confidential 
nature having been destroyed, and a few others of less 
importance given away or mislaid. Of those which re- 
main I have sent a selection, embracing, as I suppose, 
most of those that may contain matter of interest sur- 
viving the occasion that called them forth. On exam- 
ining my files, I have found but two or three imperfect 
draughts of letters addressed to him. Had I the entire 
series on both sides, a reperusal might enable me to 
recall other particulars which have now faded from 
memory. In default of that I have to offer but shad- 
ows or fragmentary recollections. 

There are many ways leading to the New Church, 
and her platform is broad enough to receive men of 
every grade of ability and the most diverse training. 
The fact that many such have been attracted thither is 
not the least among the proofs of the catholic nature 
of the system. The influences to which we had been 
severally subjected in early life were in some respects 
very different, in others more analogous. Although 
our friend was a native of New England, and received 
his early education under Puritan auspices and the In- 
dependent system of church polity, his study of theol- 
ogy was pursued at Princeton — a Presbyterian Semi- 
nary ; after which he became the pastor of a Presby- 
terian church, and popular as such. This, I suppose, 
was one result of that celebrated " Plan of Union " 
between Presbyterians and Independents of the North 
and North-West, founded on the idea of merging minor 
differences in greater principles held by them in com- 
mon, for the promotion of objects which both thought 
desirable. How far this coalition, in appearance 
so liberal, may have been cemented by a common 
hostility to Romanism and Episcopacy, this is not the 
place to inquire, That some good resulted from it dur- 
ing its continuance there can be no doubt ; as with their 
united strength they could war more effectively against 
Ignorance, and aid in propagating a sort of Christian 



200 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

knowledge. Bat subsequent events proved, what past 
history might have foreshadowed — that such an arrange- 
ment could only be provisional ; that between the Scot- 
tish and Puritan elements there were points of antag- 
onism which must ultimately produce explosion : the 
Puritan being more progressive and adaptive; the 
Scotch preserving their nationality in other countries 
and at seasons where it is out of place and time, and 
suffering it also to mingle in themes where it is wholly 
irrelevant, and then not always distinguishing between 
obstinacy and firmness in its maintenance; — in fine, 
that two such religious parties could only be perma- 
nently united on a basis of pure truth. Let us hope 
that the time may be hastened when such union may be 
rightfully effected ; when the extreme opinions of each 
shall be moderated, and the peculiar virtues of both 
shall be enlisted in the best of causes. "We know that 
when the primary objects of their association had been 
in some measure answered, the celebrated conflict of 
"the schools" — Old and New — arose; and in the 
final issue of such a contest it would not be difficult to 
foresee where one like our friend, determined at all 
hazards to maintain his liberty of thought and action, 
would be found, although he might not remain even 
there permanently. 

But there was another quarter of our country where 
the general spirit of society was in some important 
respects different from either of those just mentioned. 
Among the educated classes in Virginia, there were 
many who had become dissatisfied with the received 
forms of religious faith before the Revolution, and 
the number of these rapidly increased for some time 
afterwards. Knowing no substitute for the old sys- 
tems which they could accept without reservation, they 
naturally fell into a negative principle. This bias re- 
ceived a fresh impulse from the popular French ma- 
terialistic philosophy, which led many to a confirmed 
phase of indifferentism, and others again to open infi- 
delity. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 201 

These last were exceptional cases, but it may lie 
added that while the importance of liberal culture of 
a more secular character has always been recognized, it 
was not then, nor is it now, — as in New England, — 
necessary to a man's holding a respectable social posi- 
tion, that he should be an open professor of any relig- 
ion ; though most persons have a general acquaint- 
ance with the various systems which have taken root in 
our country, and a preference for some one in particular, 
and are more or less influenced by it. Public senti- 
ment being here of this liberal cast, if we recall the 
then state of sacred literature, we may learn without 
surprise, that men not religious by temperament did not 
engage in theological reading directly, or of preference. 
It must be owned that among these were many in 
whom the love of country, for the time, was stronger 
than the sentiment of devotion, and the more serious 
studies of such — other than professional — were histori- 
cal and political, rather than religious. 

But a change has come over society here as else- 
where, pervading all classes, though principally induced 
in those above mentioned by that very patriotism which 
had first led them away to other themes. For, in en- 
deavoring, with the lights afforded by the philosophy 
of history, to form a just estimate of the condition and 
wants of their country, and especially of their own state, 
they could no longer ignore the subject of religion. The 
grievous disappointment of the hopes which had at- 
tended the old French Revolution, — the temporary 
suppression of Liberalism in continental Europe fol- 
lowed there by the sudden and formidable revival of 
Romanism, and its rapid extension here, so alarming 
both to the pious and patriotic, — the disorganization of 
society, and the weakness of Protestantism arising from 
its endless divisions, — the failure of Philosophy abroad 
and of Unitarianism here to provide an adequate substi- 
tute, — in private life the injury to individuals and fami- 
lies, and by consequence to the state, from the lack of 
something positive to meet this irrepressible want of 



202 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

human nature, — all conspired to turn their thoughts 
anew into this channel. 

In complying with your request I find it difficult to 
be wholly silent as to my own antecedents when treat- 
ing of my intercourse with our friend. You will, there- 
fore, pardon the indelicacy, as, without the mention of 
certain of these, I know not how to render the sequel 
intelligible. The writer would simply say then, that 
he was born during this latitudinarian era, and as 
he grew up, had opportunities of observing its effects 
on individuals and society generally. Though reared 
under a positive religious system — the Presbyterian 
— to which certain of his nearest friends had adhered 
during the season of general defection, and though 
brought in contact with various others, he could not 
wholly escape the prevailing spirit of the age. For he 
was, during his minority, rather indifferent to any special 
religion as distinguished from general morality and the 
law of honor. There were indeed many things both 
in the spirit and tenets of that system which did not 
strike him favorably ; though he probably did not then 
inquire very closely whether the fault were in the system 
or in himself ; and he must say, that adulterated as he 
now believes it to be, he is conscious of having derived 
certain and important advantages from so much of it 
as he imbibed in the ordinary way. It was not, how- 
ever, until his maturity, that he made it a personal 
matter, and gave in his adhesion to the Faith which 
he had been early taught. This step, he readily owns, 
was taken without sufficiently weighing its claims 
against those of others ; though herein he followed the 
example of nearly all his acquaintance who had made 
any religious profession. But having done so, a part 
of Ms leisure was devoted to extending his inquiries 
into various departments of the general subject which 
he had before too much neglected. 

The political bearings of the Roman question had 
first led me to examine the controversy between Protes- 
tants and Catholics ; from whence, by an easy transition, 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 203 

I passed to the study of the general department of Scrip- 
ture prophecy, and especially of that portion which was 
said to be as yet unfulfilled. The proofs from history 
of the fulfilment of many of these predictions, as given 
by commentators, seemed plausible enough. But the 
style of prophecy generally was peculiar and myste- 
rious, and the attempted explanations left many pas- 
sages as obscure as when first read. And then, their 
guesses at the future were so diverse and apparently 
so extravagant, as to lessen my faith in their exposi- 
tions of this entire class of the sacred writings. 

I mention these things as having furnished the oc- 
casion of my first hearing of our friend, and as such the 
remote cause of our acquaintance. Union Seminary 
in this State is a Presbyterian School of Theology, and 
as such has ever been in close alliance with Princeton. 
Having known the founder of the former institution,* 
and his colleagues, and more slightly the senior pro- 
fessors of Princeton and many of the young divines 
who had issued from that school, I believe I under- 
stood quite well the spirit of the place, and of most 
others of the same type. Conversing one day with a 
professor of Union Seminary, I asked him what was 
the most approved explanation of those very sublime 
and obscure passages which we read in chaps. I. and X. 
of Ezekiel? In reply, he mentioned several, but the 
most satisfactory, he thought, was that which had been 
given by the Rev. George Bush, and whom I think he 
said he had known at Princeton or elsewhere. This 
exposition I have never seen, and I forget whether he 
said it was published separately or as an article in a 
periodical. But the name of the writer, as associated 
with the subject, was retained, and when his Life of 
Mohammed appeared, I was thereby induced to read 
it, which I did with interest. His treatise on the Mil- 
lennium, which I next read, was a startling innovation 
on received opinions, but thinking men did not there- 
fore reject it at once. The view which he took was so 

* Dr. John II. Rice, a learned, pious, and liberal divine. 



204 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

different from the fantastic notions that had so long 
prevailed, and yet so calm and rational withal, and so 
fortified with learning directed by good sense, that I 
was disposed to accept it as a provisional interpreta- 
tion until something better should appear. Personally 
I felt grateful to him therefor, for, as I assured him at 
a later day, it was one of many stepping-stones which 
led me by a rather circuitous route to the New Church. 
His reputation as a Hebrew scholar was not unknown 
to me, but of this I was no judge. Neither did I read 
his commentary on the Pentateuch, although I heard 
it characterized as an admirable digest both of the old 
and new learning as applied to the interpretation of 
those books. 

Shortly after the writer's affiliation with the Presby- 
terian church, the controversy of the schools, then in its 
earlier stages, came South ; and as it raged for years, 
and ultimately severed them in twain, he could not 
wholly escape the din. As the questions involved were 
of great intrinsic interest, and he being one who could 
not content himself with a blind adherence to a tra- 
ditionary creed, he must inquire anew into its merits. 
The result was, that though his sympathies were rather 
with the New School as being both more rational and 
liberal, he found so much in both from which he was 
compelled to dissent, that he could remain with neither. 
Before making a second choice of a religion, he felt 
bound to proceed more deliberately than at first, and to 
give an impartial examination to all other systems of 
any pretension. But while there were several that ap- 
peared less vulnerable than Calvinism, he found none 
free from serious objection, until by a most unexpected 
series of events he was induced to look at that of the 
New Church. 

It was in the year '37 that I first began to study 
in earnest a system of which I had occasionally heard 
something before, but for the most part nothing aright. 
Independent inquiry soon showed me how grossly it 
had been misrepresented by the popular voice, and how 



OP PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 205 

entirely it satisfied the utmost wants of my head and 
heart. Having accepted it without reserve, my theo- 
logical reading for some years was diverted into this 
new channel. For some time I was without sympathy 
in my own neighborhood, and was often called to vin- 
dicate my position in the private circle. This process 
of collecting, disposing, and illustrating the reasons of 
my change, insensibly led to habits of writing on such 
subjects ; — at first, for the satisfaction of friends or cor- 
respondents, and at length for the Church, for the pages 
of whose periodicals a few occasional essays were fur- 
nished. It was a knowledge of this last fact, as I af- 
terwards learned, which in the year '44 induced a then 
unknown author to send me a specimen sheet from the 
body of a new book on the Resurrection. The frag- 
ment was at first a puzzle. There was matter here 
not in accord with Orthodox or Unitarian opinions ; 
yet was there something also which could not have 
proceeded from a well-informed New Churchman. In 
no long time, I saw it announced that a work on this 
subject by Professor Bush, just issued, was creating no 
little sensation in the theological world. It was ac- 
cordingly procured and carefully read, and proved to 
be the entire work of which the fragment formed a 
part, and was regarded as a most extraordinary phe- 
nomenon in its kind. 

One effect of the new light which has been shining 
on the minds of men for a century is, that those who 
think freely and are at the same time lovers of truth, 
must dissent from certain parts of the long-established 
creeds. And the sects will now tolerate this, if the 
divergencies are not too many, or such as strike at 
what they affect to consider fundamentals ; — provided 
also the thinkers are content to hold their conclusions 
as private opinions and do not agitate for Reform. 
But if honest in avowing them, their old position will 
soon be rendered uneasy by the conservatives. Now 
here was a stride far beyond all recent progress from 
that quarter, and as such, an offence against orthodoxy 
18 



206 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

that could not be forgiven. Clearly the writer must 
recant his heresies if he would retain the good-will of 
his brethren ; or if not prepared to do this, — and from 
his antecedents I inferred this was quite improbable, 
— after having entered on this new path of inquiry he 
will hardly stop there. Indeed, for such a mind I could 
then see no other terminus for such an adventure than 
that which he ultimately reached. So thinking, en- 
couraged also by the receipt of the fragment from his 
hand, I was prompted to address a letter to the author, 
which proved the beginning of our correspondence. 

Some parts of his book I thought open to criticism — 
that it was susceptible of amendment, and might re- 
ceive additions, without impairing its efficiency ; and 
this, as to certain particulars, I ventured to intimate in 
my letter. A man of less candor and modesty might 
have thought this a fit occasion to stand on his autho- 
rial dignity and refer to our relative situations. Under 
other circumstances I should myself have considered 
it as of questionable decorum in a retired layman, un- 
known to the republic of letters, thus to approach 
one who had devoted his life to such studies, and 
whose well-earned reputation had carried his name to 
the borders of his own country, and was not unknown 
in Europe. But he received the suggestions in the 
spirit in which they were given, and invited a contin- 
uance of our correspondence. 

When the Anastasis was published he was but su- 
perficially informed in the Faith of the New Church, 
and that at second-hand. He now engaged directly in 
the study of the works of Swedenborg, and, prepared 
as he was by his knowledge of the Scriptures in their 
literal sense, and of other doctrinal systems in their 
strength and their weakness, his progress was acceler- 
ated in a corresponding ratio. Nevertheless, any one 
who has been deeply imbued with the orthodox system, 
whatever his vigor of intellect, and however richly fur- 
nished with the ordinary learning, and though his early 
faith may have been shaken to its foundations, will in 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 207 

this new study encounter serious difficulties. Its lead- 
ing doctrines may early win his assent, but in carrying 
them out in all their details and consequences, much 
must be both learned and unlearned ; — the latter, with 
theologians professed, being much the harder task of 
the two. To have their very axioms called in question, 
and all their fancied acquisitions tried by a new and 
uncompromising standard, is what but few of them 
can bear. In a word, whatever their candor and love 
of truth, this must be a gradual work. But as those 
who set out from the same point, and with the same 
object in view, must travel nearly the same road, so 
they who have gone before may aid in pointing out 
obstructions and showing how they may be avoided or 
surmounted. 

The difficulties encountered by our friend were such 
as had occurred to many others ; and as the proposal 
for an interchange of letters had been accepted, he 
would occasionally mention them to his correspondent; 
who, in turn, would give him such answers as iiad been 
satisfactory to himself, and refer him to other and 
fuller sources of information. And this slight service 
in abridging his labors, which might as well or better 
have been rendered by many others, was repaid by 
acknowledgments out of all proportion to its value, and 
contributed to strengthen that kindly feeling which had 
so unexpectedly arisen. There were also parts of the 
system which he had failed to apprehend, or impor- 
tant distinctions which he had overlooked, as I in- 
ferred from certain passages in his three next works 
— those on the " Resurrection of Christ, " " The Soul, " 
and " Mesmer and Swedenborg ; " and when, on the 
strength of my longer study of this system, I ventured 
to call his attention to these, he received the sugges- 
tions with the same fraternal kindness and candor as 
in the beginning. 

The accession to our cause of a man of mark such 
as Professor Bush, had one effect that was anticipated. 
It drove our opponents from the policy of silence, or 



208 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

secret denunciation, which they had so long and so 
systematically pursued. We had presently some lighter 
skirmishes in newspapers and periodicals, confined 
principally to the one subject which had furnished the 
point of departure. But these, in no long time, were 
followed by regular assaults on the entire system of 
the New Church from two other professors of theology, 
and both hailing from New England. These books 
were recommended in the Orthodox journals and in- 
dustriously circulated wherever it was supposed the 
new heresy was like to have a hearing. Professor 
Bush, although so recent a recruit, undertook to give a 
good account of Dr. Woods, who was the more dig- 
nified and courteous assailant. My opinion as to the 
success of this effort has been given elsewhere. There 
were many writers in the New Church who could 
readily have disposed of the other gentleman, but just 
then they were otherwise engaged. It was, however, 
thought desirable that a specific reply should appear 
as soon as possible, and the more so that the previous 
silence had been taken as acknowledgment of" defeat. 
In looking round for some one to take up the second 
glove, Professor Bush thought at length of his lay cor- 
respondent, the present writer ; — and no little to the 
surprise of the latter, who, thinking that our friend 
should not be left to champion the cause alone, could 
not refuse his aid. He had at first devolved the duty 
on another, far better qualified than himself; but his 
attention being also pre-occupied, it was returned to 
him who was first chosen. And this reference is for 
the sole purpose of stating that the writer was not a 
volunteer on that occasion, but that it was at the in- 
stance of our friend that this matter was undertaken. 

The Reply to Dr. Pond, while in course of prepara- 
tion, was an oft-recurring topic in our letters; was pub- 
lished under his superintendence, and formed a part of 
the " Swedenborg Library," a periodical then edited 
by himself. 

It was during this period, in May, '47, that I first 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 209 

saw him, at a suite of rooms in Nassau Street, which 
he was then occupying as a temporary study. At that 
time he was a widower ; his sole companion, the son 
of his first marriage, a youth of promise, who was 
taken away before attaining manhood. I had seen no 
portrait of the Professor; had heard no particular de- 
scription of his person or general manner ; and the 
writings of savans are not always a safe guide in en- 
abling us to form by anticipation a just conception of 
either. In his case I was at once and favorably im- 
pressed with both ; and the more so from the unex- 
pected resemblance to a distinguished man of letters 
in my own State with whom I was on terms of friendly 
intercourse ; * and before the close of the interview I 
thought the likeness extended to certain rather peculiar 
mental traits and modes of expression. He met me 
with fraternal cordiality, and in five minutes I felt as 
if I had known him for years. His character, indeed, 
as I had foreseen, was very transparent ; as, from the 
singleness and purity of his purpose, he had nothing 
to conceal. A spontaneous dignity shone through the 
simplicity of his manner, as became one in his sacred 
calling. It certainly required no nursing before one 
who knew and respected him, while the bon hommie 
of the man at once piaced me at my ease. 

In his conversation I saw no attempt at the oracular 
or the aphoristic; none to say striking things. His 
talk was that of a Christian gentleman, who could 
readily adapt himself to the company he might be in, 
and furnish his quota in the exchanges of social inter- 
course. And though there was no lack of interesting 
themes, I retain rather a general impression of his sen- 
timents, than a distinct recollection of his language on 
any one point. We talked of many things in a cursory 
style ; dwelling, of course, at greater length on some 

* The late Wm. Maxwell, Esq., of Norfolk. The resemblance was 
most remarkable, " quale decetfratrum," and might be observed in (be very 
tones of their voices, as was noted at a later day by other persons from 
this State who heard the Professor preach. 

18* 



210 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

matters than on others. There was some further com- 
parison of views and personal experience as to the 
courses which had led us respectively to the New 
Church, after which he spoke of much in the Signs of 
the Times which gave hope of increased attention to 
her claims, — of the marked change in the face of 
current literature, which now often presented ideas in 
consonance with her faith and philosophy, — that he 
personally knew of many men of learning, or intelli- 
gence, or high position, both among the clergy and 
laity, who were now inquiring respectfully concerning 
that which, from prejudice or voluntary ignorance, had 
so long been hidden from their sight. His hopes in 
this kind were more sanguine than my own ; but as 
his situation afforded better means of knowing, I was 
willing to suspend my opinion and await future devel- 
opments. He also touched on several things which 
were afterwards expanded in his letters or editorials, 
and so need not be mentioned here. We spent the 
evening, by invitation, at Rev. Mr. B.'s, where the con- 
versation was continued in the same strain. I hoped 
to have seen more of him before returning South, but 
suddenly concluded to extend my tour to Boston, which 
left me no opportunity of thus renewing this pleasant 
intercourse. 

I saw him, however, again in '53, and more than 
once, but under circumstances less favorable for per- 
sonal conference ; for, at no time, as I now remember, 
were we together alone. The evening of my arrival 
in the city, I met him with other friends — quite a party 

— at the house of Mr. G . I called to see him by 

appointment during a sabbath evening, and found 
other guests ; but he had been summoned to officiate 
at a funeral and did not return until the evening was 
far spent; so could only enjoy his general conversa- 
tion. On this occasion also my tour was extended be- 
yond New York, and on my return through the city, 
we met at the Crystal Palace. It would have been a 
special gratification to have accompanied him in a 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 211 

leisurely review of that magnificent collection, — itself 
an outbirth of the new era, — and to have heard his 
remarks on whatever was noteworthy ; but he had a 
lady relative with him, and no friend at hand to whose 
charge he could temporarily resign her ; so I could not 
venture on the request. I had, however, the satisfac- 
tion, before leaving the city, of hearing him preach, 
though for the first and only time. The style of his 
elocution was copious and easy, and abounding in 
happy illustration, but calm and didactic, — earnest, no 
doubt, but, as I learn, with less of warmth, and what 
is popularly termed eloquence, than characterized his 
early ministrations. 

And such were the glimpses vouchsafed me, of one 
to whom I felt strongly attracted at first sight, by a 
supposed congeniality of disposition and taste, though 
no one could be more sensible than myself of the dis- 
tance which separated us in other respects. Had I 
lived in his vicinity, I should have esteemed it a signal 
advantage to attend on his ministry, and should have 
sought his society at such other times as his leisure 
would permit ; but it was ordered otherwise. Nor did 
I avail myself as fully as I might have done of the 
usual substitute, for he had invited the freest inter- 
change of letters. But knowing how valuable his 
time was to him, and supposing it to be better em- 
ployed, judging also that he must have been oppressed 
by similar calls from others, I forebore to write, except 
when the occasion seemed fully to justify the trespass 
on his courtesy. 

Thus much can I say of the Professor, in all sincerity. 
And here would I willingly pause, without adding any 
thing in a different strain, but that in so doing I should 
fail to convey a just idea of the estimate I had formed 
of his entire character as a New Churchman. Highly, 
then, as I thought of his ability and attainments, and 
sensible, as I hope I am, of the debt of gratitude we 
owe to his memory, I did not believe that our friend 
was free from human infirmity, nor yet that he had so 



212 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

far surmounted it as that there were no occasions in 
his later career on which this was manifested. 

Having himself waked up to the consciousness that 
we were living in a new age — that a grand, even the 
final system of religious truth had at length dawned 
upon the world, and which had only to be examined 
with candor to win general acceptance from the intel- 
ligent; observing signs of progress in other directions, 
he could not but hope for a more general attention to 
this, the highest interest of man. Sanguine also in 
his temperament, and unsuspecting in his disposition, 
"loving Truth" moreover, as he has somewhere said, 
" better than his daily bread," — he gave the world 
around him credit for something more of his own taste 
than experience has shown they merited. And the wish 
being father to the thought, he may have fancied that 
he saw signs of progress where he should have sus- 
pected something very different. This, if a failing, 
may perhaps be excused as one " that leaned to virtue's 
side." But if in this regard he was less willing than 
some of his brethren to " hasten slowly," there was 
another foot on which at times he seemed to halt. 
Like most other persons trained under a different sys- 
tem, — especially the learned, — on entering the New 
Church he must have surrendered much that he once 
held dear; yet did I sometimes think that early preju- 
dices may have clung to him also, as to less favored 
individuals, influencing his action more or less, or col- 
oring his sentiments on other subjects ; or else that he 
brought with him certain opinions on points of minor 
importance, to which he rather wished the New Sys- 
tem might be accommodated, than that they should bo 
tried by it, as an uncompromising standard. 

You will not suppose that I am herein impeaching 
the liberality of the Professor. He did not pretend to 
be infallible, and had perhaps less of what is called 
" pride of intellect " than most men who have labori- 
ously built up a literary reputation, as is evinced by 
his surrender of a cherished system when it appeared 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 213 

no longer tenable. He was, indeed, like his brethren, 
" ever learning," but having accepted the genuine Chris- 
tian Doctrine as his Faith, it cannot be said that " he 
never came to the knowledge of the truth." For the 
rest, in matters indifferent, or those of less moment, 
claiming the right to think freely himself, he conceded 
a like liberty to others, and gave a practical proof of 
this in allowing the full discussion of controverted 
questions in the pages of his own periodical. And 
widely as the present writer may have differed with 
him on certain points, he has no reason to believe that 
their mutual amicable relations were disturbed thereby. 
But lest some should persist in regarding them as hard 
sayings when proceeding from a professed friend, I must 
again beg leave to refer to an example in proof of each. 
In its rebound from the superstitions of the mid- 
dle ages, the church, especially among Protestants, had 
fallen so far on the other side, as to be invaded by a 
spirit of Sadduceeism. This and other momentous 
errors were upheld by the false systems of mental 
philosophy which had so long prevailed. When the 
phenomena of what is now known as spiritism first 
rose to view, Prof. B., seeing at a glance that many of 
these were undeniable, and that, however offensive to 
piety, they tended to overthrow that philosophy, hoped 
that, this great obstruction being removed, the truth on 
other subjects would be more readily received. The 
sequel has shown, not only that such hope was prema- 
ture, but that he was not sufficiently alive to the perils 
attending on such phenomena when sought to be di- 
rectly produced. With his sanguine temperament was 
united the charity that thinketh no evil. And it is but 
justice to say, that when the cloven foot was shown, 
no one drew back with more unaffected horror than 
himself. 

Again, primary education is less extended among the 
masses at the South than with you. Not that the 
people have been unaware of its importance ; but many 
causes, needless to mention here, have led to a state 



214 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

of things which is being steadily ameliorated. Fewer 
books also have been written here than at the North. 
From these facts and the reports of prejudiced travel- 
lers or sojourners, — as I happen to know, — the Profes- 
sor partook of a misapprehension, which has been too 
common there, both as to the kind and extent of cul- 
ture among our upper and middle classes. But as this 
was a matter of less practical importance than another 
to be presently mentioned, I was at little pains in un- 
deceiving him. 

Prof. B., like many other men of his order at the 
North, at one period thought it necessary to " deliver 
his soul," by testifying against the slavery of the Afri- 
can race, as it exists at the South. It seems to be the 
fate of all who speak on this subject from other than 
personal experience, or long and calm observation, to 
fall into serious error. The moderation of our friend 
did not suffer him to be betrayed into the extreme 
notions of our modern amateur philanthropists, neither 
did he give his sanction to the enormous calumnies by 
which these are sought to be justified. But when this 
is conceded, it must also be owned that he threw no 
new light on the difficult subject. 

As intimated above, I have no reason to doubt that 
the Professor accepted without reserve the general 
system of doctrine as set forth by Swedenborg for the 
New Church. In this our agreement was cordial and 
entire. But there was another matter second only in 
importance to this. I refer to the Order of the Church 
and its Ministry, on which we differed by nearly the 
entire horizon. The attitude assumed by Prof. B. on 
this subject occasioned both surprise and concern to 
many, who honestly believed that he thereby impaired 
his usefulness in life, and who feared that his example 
and opinions might continue to operate to the injury 
of that cause which lay nearest his heart. And yet it 
would be both unjust and ungrateful not to acknowl- 
edge that on this occasion also he showed his wonted 
regard for freedom of discussion. The present writer, 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 215 

although a layman, had some time before this been 
requested to give utterance through the press to his 
views on this subject, and when his published opinions 
were assailed from various quarters, and by the editor 
among others, our friend freely granted the privilege of 
defence in the columns of his own journal. In deny- 
ing the rightful distinction between clergy and. laity, as 
this has been generally acknowledged in theory, and 
universally in practice, by all denominations and sects 
of the Old Church — that one only excepted which 
for its heresies has the most pointed condemnation of 
Swedenborg, — he also advanced a novelty before un- 
known in the New. Numbers, I know, are not the 
test of truth ; and had he made good his new position 
by arguments sufficient and satisfactory to the general 
church, his boldness and decision would have been all 
the more commendable. It is not uncommon in such 
cases for a man to succeed in convincing himself; but if 
he fails to carry any considerable portion of his more 
thoughtful brethren with him, is it uncharitable to sup- 
pose that the latter may have had something more than 
merely selfish or sophistical reasons for withholding their 
assent ? He sometimes complained that the church 
as to this matter were not willing to give him a fair 
hearing. I know not whether the allegation is just as 
regards others ; I only say that the present writer is 
untouched thereby. My respect for him, if not my 
interest in the subject generally, would have prompted 
me to give its due weight to whatever might proceed 
from him on this or any other sacred theme, and yet 
after candid consideration I found myself no nearer to 
his position than before. 

His studies in the history of a former church had no 
doubt revealed to him scenes of fraudulent craft, of 
tyranny, and maintenance of error for selfish ends, on 
the part of the priesthood, at which his whole soul re- 
volted. His own experience and observation had satis- 
fied him that the same order of men at the present day 
interposed the chief obstacles to the spread of truth 



21G MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

in its purity. Is it wholly incredible then, that these 
abuses of a holy function may have hurried him to the 
conclusion that the office itself could find neither war- 
rant nor sanction in the word of authority, nor be jus- 
tified by a large view of expediency ? If in this he 
erred, as I doubt not he did, I can as freely believe that 
one who had made such advances in the regenerate 
life, and who was otherwise distinguished for candor 
and sincerity, has already accepted the truth, whatever 
that may be, in a world where all honest doubts may 
be speedily resolved. 

In taking this retrospect of the character and public 
career of our friend, I have not attempted to deduce 
any formal moral ; but certain reflections have arisen 
naturally, which may be not wholly unworthy the con- 
sideration of others whom they may concern ; and these 
are not a few. 

In old countries, fully peopled, and where the order 
of society has been long established, however highly 
civilized also, and though culture may be generally dif- 
fused, we might anticipate that any religious change 
which reached fundamentals, would meet with obsti- 
nate resistance from some quarter, and be attended per- 
haps with civil convulsion. Nor should we be sur- 
prised at this when we consider the general selfishness 
of mankind, the slavery of the people to custom and 
prejudice, their well-nigh passive obedience to the dic- 
tates of their leaders, and how difficult it is for those in 
authority to look impartially on that which threatens 
their vested or corporate interests. The same causes 
operate here, but to a less extent. Here we have no 
religious establishment ; but Christianity, in its different 
forms, is left to the voluntary support of those who 
may give a preference to one over the rest. Under this 
system also divers sects have arisen, grown strong in 
property and power and influence, which, when men- 
aced, their leaders are equally prompt to defend. And 



OP PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 217 

I need not say that for this purpose they sometimes re- 
sort to other weapons than those of learning and argu- 
ment from Scripture and reason, or the example of a 
pious and useful life. But when the principle of re- 
ligious liberty is incorporated in our constitutions of 
government, and all are equal in the eye of the law, 
and the courts of justice open to all, I know not that 
the State could rightfully do more ; and the people 
who are thus distinguished above all the nations should 
estimate their privileges accordingly. 

How strange then that this freedom of religion should 
be vaunted vociferously by multitudes who never use 
it for comparing the claims of opposing creeds! Are 
men responsible only for what they know, and not also 
for their opportunities of knowledge ? Has the com- 
mand to " prove all things," ever been repealed ? and 
how else can they be sure that they are " adhering to 
that which is good ? " The wisdom of him who shuns 
inquiry, lest added knowledge should impose other and 
irksome duties, is akin to the prudence of the bird who 
hopes to escape his pursuers by burying his head in 
the sand. 

And then the great lesson, that men cannot and 
ought not to be religious by proxy, is being constantly 
repeated. In view of this can any thing be clearer, 
than that it is the interest of all, as it is of each one, 
to discard error when detected, and welcome truth in its 
purity whenever recognized ? Perhaps the worst ene- 
mies of the human race, themselves included, are your 
ultra-conservatives, who resist all change, and denounce 
every attempt at reform, on the plea that if once begun 
we know not whether it will stop short of destruction. 
This is obvious enough in politics, and may be seen 
especially in the repeated civil convulsions of Europe, 
during the century past -^ in their wars and national 
debts, and the ruin of innumerable individuals and 
of a multitude of families, including royal and noble 
houses. But it is not less true of religion. Not to go 
further back, Rome, by her obstinate adherence to errors 
Id 



218 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

and abuses, gave birth to Protestantism, and has perpet- 
uated the schism by reducing those errors to a system, 
and attempting to stamp them with the seal of infalli- 
bility. The Protestants after a time adopted the same 
policy, which again has led to divisions without end. 
And if an apparent expediency is to dictate the mode 
and measure of inquiry also, the detection and removal 
of error must be indefinitely postponed. 

If we look at the number of churches and clergy in 
our land, all sustained by the voluntary principle, a 
superficial observer might infer that the cause of re- 
ligion was prospering beyond precedent. But those 
who have been behind the scenes, or who look below 
the surface, cannot but know that the old Chris- 
tianity, as a coherent system of faith, is dying apace. 
" Shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it." All is 
unsettled or uncertain. Dissatisfaction among think- 
ing, even devout men, is deep and extensive. It is not, 
then, solely from a disposition to throw off the obliga- 
tions of religion, that many such stand ready, if en- 
couraged thereto by those who should be their natural 
leaders, to inquire whether there be no more satisfac- 
tory explanation of Holy Writ than that which they 
find in the prevailing creeds. If honest men of all par- 
ties would unite as against the common enemy and 
seek the true remedy, the face of society would be spee- 
dily changed. The system of the New Church fur- 
nishes a basis on which all such may meet and com- 
promise their differences ; and the rather that itself is 
not founded on mere opinion, or argument, but claims 
to be a revelation anew of the true doctrine of the Di- 
vine Word, which had long been lost. This doctrine 
has now been for a full century before the world, and 
within that time has been deliberately accepted by a 
sufficient number of the judicious and reflecting to 
entitle it to a fair hearing from all. 

America offers as fair a theatre as we can hope for, 
for the trial of such an experiment. Her various sects 
disclaim infallibility. Iq their mutual controversies 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 219 

each convicts the others of some error, or shows that it 
sees some truth more clearly than its opponents; and 
yet the leaders on all sides are still for resisting the in- 
troduction of new questions which would thoroughly 
probe the evil. At least one man, however, in this vast 
body, and known to all of them, has been found pos- 
sessed of courage sufficient to stem this tide, and ex- 
amine for himself a system which comes with such 
pretensions. He solemnly declares that he has at 
length found the pearl of great price, — that he has 
emerged from the region of doubt to that of clear light, 
and invites the men of his order throughout the land 
to repeat the adventure. And what is the response ? 
They who fear to imitate his noble daring affect to pity 
his aberrations; and finding themselves unable to meet 
his strong reasons, take refuge in silence, and would 
fain cover their dread with a thin veil of spurious dig- 
nity, or'affected contempt. 

And what have been, and what are like to be, the 
further and fearful consequences of the delinquency ? 
Not only do we see around a progressive decay of pub- 
lic morals, — but, while we write, this goodly fellow- 
ship of States, on the integrity of which, humanly 
speaking, the hopes of the world for future liberty 
mainly depend, is threatened with disruption ; and all 
— we say it deliberately — because the appointed 
guardians of the Sacred Word have not known how 
to interpret its oracles aright. The whole creation 
indeed groaneth and travaileth in pain ; and why is it 
not delivered, but that the lawyers have taken away 
the key of knowledge ? They enter not in themselves, 
and those that would they hinder. 

Time was when Puritans could invoke the curse of 
Meroz on such as would not come " to the help of the 
Lord against the mighty." And shall it be said in 
the coming age, that of all the Princes in their Israel, 
George Bush was the only one who in this day was 
found willing to hearken to the voice, from heaven re- 
calling them to their allegiance to the God whom they 



220 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

had forgotten ? If they will have it so, well ! There 
liveth one, even the ever-living, who of the very stones 
can raise up children to Abraham. He has once pro- 
claimed in thunder-tones, and may again by his Provi- 
dence, " He that is ashamed of me and of my words, 
of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he 
cometh in his glory." 



EXTRACTS 

FROM LETTERS OF PROF. BUSH TO N. F. CABELL, ESQ. 



[The following extracts from letters of Prof. Bush 
to Mr. Cabell come in appropriately after Mr. Cabell's 
communication. They will be read with interest as 
casting light upon many points of New Church the- 
ology, especially at a time when the Professor was 
making his way from the Old Church to the New.] 

New York, July 19, 1845. 

Mr. Cabell : — Bear Sir, — Your letter presents so many- 
points of challenge to my gratitude that I scarce know which 
to advert to first. Perhaps I am made most deeply your debtor 
by the remarks on the Internal Sense. This has been with me, 
and still is, the great stone of stumbling and rock of offence. 
But I perceive myself approximating by degrees to a clearer 
recognition of the pi'inciple, while at the same time I am more 
and more doubtful about the expediency of making it so promi- 
nent as is usually done in the preachings and writings of the 
New Church. It strikes me as requiring a far more advanced 
state of spirituality than is common among the receivers to 
make it profitable ; and indeed I met not long since with a re- 
mark of Swedenborg himself, that the spiritual sense is princi- 
pally intended for the angels. This Avas in the H. D. of N. J. 
Indeed, I must say that the preaching of the New Church in- 
terests me very little. But the desideratum is abundantly made 
up by the writings themselves. With these I am absorbed — 
rapt — ecstasized. The man himself fills me with the extrem- 
est amazement, — so calm, so simple, so luminous, so grand, 
so majestic, and withal so maximns in minimis. You find a 
thousand little collateral items of disclosures which you might 
not perhaps have missed had they not been given, but which, 
19* 



222 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

being given, are pi-iceless to you, because they address them- 
selves to some of the whispered interrogations of th<j spirit 
which are the more grateful for a reply in proportion as they 
little expected it. The world must certainly at length wake up 
to the conviction that " a prophet has been among them." 
****** 

You refer with kindly interest to a possible change in my 
relations growing out of the change in my views. This is of 
course a theme of much pondering in my own mind. I do not 
see -but my respect for the teachings of Swedenborg must oper- 
ate a great revolution in my sphere of use in the world. The 
conviction of his truth is becoming very deeply wrought within 
me, and it is among my most serious questions what form 
fidelity to my belief shall assume. On this point I am trying 
to seek for light, and I would not have you delay any sugges- 
tions that may occur to you. In my present state I cannot 
satisfy either the Old Church or the New, and I am not very 
sensible of a much nearer approximation to either. I am medi- 
tating therefore a preaching enterprize on my own hook, as the 
saying is. I have clearly done with the self-reputed Orthodox, 
and have the prospect of immense sacrifices and sufferings, but 
I cannot imprison the conscious truth, and therefore propose 
to unfold it in public discourses as I can find hearers and up- 
holders. This service I think to enter upon in the ensuing 
fall. But I shall probably be obliged to strip myself of my 
library and any worldly possession, as such a course will neces- 
sarily forfeit for me all the confidence of that public on which I 
have heretofore relied for support from my writings. But I 
am not moved by a view of consequences. 

New York, Aug. 19, 1845. 

* * * * * * * 

But not to cheat myself of space by yarns of apology, let 
me say in the outset that I had myself anticipated your criti- 
cisms in consequence of further research into the " doctrine of 
the Lord " and its cognates, which has given me to sec that I 
wrote in a very dusky lumen on some important points which 
your lucidity could not but readily detect. However, I am in 
rather a hopeful way, and I see continual occasion to admire 
your forbearance. But perhaps my present use could not so well 
have been attained by insisting upon the whole truth. Judg- 
ing from my own blundering approaches towards the mark, the 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 223 

Old Church is miserably prepared for the entire verity on the 
true nature of the Redeemer or his redemption-work. Yet 
this, I very clearly perceive, is the grand central doctrine of 
Revelation. What then must be the amount of the subaltern 
errors when the Trcurovfevdog is so vast? 

You can scarcely expect otherwise than that my interest in 
the writings should be on the increase ; at any rate, I cannot 
report otherwise. I have already gone over those portions 
which you were so good as to indicate, and I find that a second 
and third perusal by no means exhausts the novelty. The page 
is still fresh at every opening. No other human production is 
to my view similarly marked. The " Divine Love and Wis- 
dom " especially strikes me as the most wonderful of all books. 
It is the universe of philosophy in its least form. " All things of 
divine order, from first to last, are collated into it." The " Con- 
jugial Love" is little less transcendent. What treasures of 
Truth, upon which the world still look — to use one of Sweden- 
borg's comparisons in the " Anim. King.," " as a mule does upon 
a water-wheel." By the way, how astonishingly striking and 
home-thrust are his similes, especially in the T. C. R. ! I think 
a strong argument in support of his claims may be drawn from 
the logical vigor and poetical glow so prominent in that work, 
written at the age of eighty-three ! I doubt if the annals of the 
human intellect can exhibit any thing parallel to it ! How much 
short of a miracle this senile adolescence ? The Moses of the 
New Church must retain his " natural force not abated," to 
the last. 

New York, Sept. 8, 1845. 

% ^ ^ % % 

I take pretty strong ground in support of the claims of Swe- 
denborg, and endeavor to " carry the war into Africa, " by con- 
tending that the system requires as imperatively to be disproved 
as to be proved, and that the time has come when Truth will no 
longer tolerate a blank indifferentism to utterances like those 
of the New Church. I make much of a number of principles 
fundamental in our nature, which must be denied downright be- 
fore Swedenborg's comments can be set aside. * * * 

I have no question but advantage will be taken to create 
odium against me on the ground of my having become a " Swe- 
denborgian." But this moves me not. I do not find myself 
obliged to quit the ground of exegesis in order to maintain the 
doctrines of the great Illumined, and when conscious of truth, 
all consequences cease to trouble me. * * * 



224 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

By the way, you speak in your last of the abhorring of the 
genius of New Churchism from the spirit of proselytism. I 
appreciate probably the grounds of the remark, yet it has oc- 
curred to me whether the general influx at this day abroad in 
the world does not bespeak a policy on this head somewhat 
more positive than has hitherto been adopted. I find a multi- 
tude of minds hungering and thirsting for the pabulum and 
potum provided for them without their knowing it. At any 
rate, I think measures may be safely and wisely taken for the 
more extended diffusion of the writings, and I have seriously 
thought of bringing out selections from the " Memorabilia," in 
the Arcana, and having them distributed in the form of Tracts. 

New York, Oct. 20, 1845. 

****** 

I insist strongly that' the case [of Swedenborg's claims] is 
one that imperatively demands to be considered, and I give no 
quarters to any slighting or slurring go-by, which mere blind 
prejudice might prompt. * . * * * 

I have an impression that Swedenborg sometimes, at least, 
by " eternal," " to eternity," etc., means simply indefinite, in- 
definitely, i.e., to a period of which no end is expressly made 
known, not perhaps amounting to absolute eternity. But this 
is a mere suggestion. 

Allow me to make another interrogatively. Does he not 
refer to the people of this continent, when speaking in the " Last 
Judgment" of a people of whom the angels expected more than 
from the men of the Christian church in coming time. As to 
the undiscovered nation in Africa, I doubt if that could be 
deemed of quite sufficient importance to be alluded to in such 
a connection. Still I am not confident. We are " far distant " 
from the old European Christendom which he probably had 
prominently in his eye. 

New York, Oct. 2, 1846. 

****** 

As to the main topic of your last — Mesmerism — it is the less 
necessary to dwell upon it now, as my work is in press, and 
the sheet sent will give you a tolerable idea of the light in 
which I view it and treat it. I regard it as an auxiliary of 
immense power in setting forth our doctrines to the world, for it 
proves the truth of Swedenborg's psychology, and this is the 
thing to weigh with the upper order of minds which we espec- 
ially wish to reach. As to the abuses, perversions, and delu- 



OF PROF. GEORGE RUSH. 225 

sions connected with it, that is entirely another question. I 
cannot consent to throw away a firstrate engine because in the 
hands of an unskilful conductor it may sometimes run the cars 
off the track. I have no doubt whatever that the subjects of the 
state often come under pernicious, and, if you please, infernal 
influences, and I should probably agree with you as to the bad 
effects of the practice of Mesmerism in a promiscuous man- 
ner, or apart from the most sacred and religious motives. The 
moral posture of the minds of the parties is the only security 
against the incident evils. Nevertheless, here is an aston- 
ishing class of facts, developed in the Divine Providence, and 
going mightily to confirm some of the leading positions of the 
New Church system ; and shall we not feel at liberty to make 
use of them for that purpose ? I am quite unable to see the 
force of the objections. The fact that the Mesmeric prompt- 
ings may come from evil spirits is certainly a serious fact, but 
is it not a great point for a skeptical and sensual world to be 
convinced that they come from any spirits at all ? Is not this 
what we are laboring to impress upon the general belief, that 
there is a spiritual world, and that we are constantly in the 
midst of it ? If Mesmerism will help us in this, why not press 
it into the service of truth ? 

New York, Dec. 13, 1846. 

Me. Cabell : — Dear Sir, — I am happy to learn from 
your last, that the book [Mesmerand Swedenborg] meets your 
approbation, as far at least, as any work on the same subject 
would be likely to do. From the acceptance it meets with, 
judging from the sales and incidental remarks, it bids fair to 
answer my anticipations. I have been sanguine, from the first, 
that it was destined to create a sensation. Of this there is 
every probability. Men are opening their eyes with astonish- 
ment to find such a deep psychology in Swedenborg, of which 
they had not the remotest conception. The press, however, 
has thus far, with few exceptions, been rather mum. It 
knows not what to say. The conductors are knocked in the 
head, and it will take them some time to recover from the stun 
so as to know what to say. But we shall hear from them ere 
long. The Boston Christian Register (Unitarian) promises 
an extended review, which I shall probably be able to send 
you. The New York Observer (Presbyterian) has been be- 
trayed into a kind of compulsory blazoning the whole affair of 
Davis. A grand onset was made upon my statement on that 



226 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

head, by Prof. Lewis, of our University, to which I secured be- 
forehand the privilege of a full reply. The reply will appear 
this week. The editor was confident that I should be com- 
pletely annihilated. He now learns his mistake, and I believe 
would almost give one of his toes to get his foot out of the 
scrape, but it is too late. He pledged himself beforehand to 
give me a hearing, and cannot now refuse the consequences, 
which will be a pretty effectual using up of all opposition, to- 
gether with a wide publicity of grand truths. His subscription 
list is 17,000. This is a remarkable providence, considering " 
that the paper is highly conservative, and the editor heartily 
detests the whole matter. But he had so much confidence in 
Lewis, of similar kidney, that he has been led on to burn his 

fingers most egregiously. 

* * • # * * * 

The missing sheets of my work I will send shortly. I 
must wait till a new batch is bound. More than half the edition 
is already sold (i.e., 750). It meets the coldest reception from 
New Church men, particularly in Boston and Philadelphia. 
They are terribly afraid of its bearings. Some of them, I fear, 
are ready to discard me from their ranks. But this is quite 
immaterial. I know the ground I stand upon, and that it will 
fully sustain me. I shall ever be happy in the sympathy of 
my brethren in the faith, but I must be allowed to do my little 
work in my own way. My plane of operation is consciously 
one of the lowest. I have not attained to the deep central 
principles of the system. But I can work about the walls, and 
moats, and portals of the heavenly city. I can beckon to the 
strangers and invite them inwards. 

New York, April 4, 1847. 
****** 

In reading on the matter of the love relations, I have taken 
up Milton's " Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce," and find it a 
gigantic piece of reasoning. I had no conception of his logical 
power. It is a godsend to the New Church. I have also run ' 
over a curious book by Madan, entitled " Thelyphthora, or a 
Treatise on Female Ruin," in which he undertakes to show 
that every man who seduces a virgin does ipso facto make 
her his wife, and that the thing is so regarded by the Divine 
Law, " because he hath humbled her." Deut. 22 : 29. It con- 
tains a great mass of useful collateral matter. Mitchelet's Life 
of Luther affords also some choice morceaux for those who live 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 227 

by eating off the altar of the Reformers. The "Anti-Christicide" 
was wonderfully complaisant to the Landgrave of Hesse, who 
told him he did not see how he could get along without a con- 
cubine. 

" Davis' book is in press and will appear in May. It will 
be wonderful exceedingly when it is considered that he is nor- 
mally absolutely ignorant of all the science and philosophy with 
which he deals so freely in the Lectures. But the theology 
will be sadly lame, I fear. 

I ought to write more after so long delay, but this must go 
for this time. Yours, very sincerely, 

Geo. Bush. 

New York, Aug. 2, 1847. 

****** 

Davis' book has just appeared and the world is calling for 
it with a rush. In point of talent and scientific merit it far 
transcends my most sanguine expectations, but in the theologi- 
cal department it is absolutely destructive. It turns the Ark 
and the Cherubim out of the sanctuary by denying the divinity 
and true inspiration of the Word, and hy representing Christ as 
merely a great Social Reformer, though the most perfect type 
of humanity. This work is calculated to do mischief to certain 
minds, but I am greatly reconciled to its appearance from the 
fact that it involves a psychological problem which nothing but 
Swedenborg's disclosures can solve. This is the issue that 
must eventually be made, and I do net fear for the verdict. 

New York, Nov. 6, 1847. 
Mr. Cabell : Dear Sir, — Since my return from a month's 
absence at the West, I have had the pleasure of running over 
the greater part of your reply (in manuscript) to Dr. Pond, 
and I cannot well refrain from expressing the sense I entertain 
of the ability with which both yourself and Mr. Cralle have 
addressed yourselves to the task. It is all that I could have 
desired and far more than I was afraid your engagements 
would have allowed you to accomplish. Dr. Pond cannot 
choose but open his eyes on a new " Bangorian Controversy" 
which he little dreamed of provoking. He has raised spirits 
which he will not find it so easy to lay. I cannot but figure to 
myself the surprise and consternation and contortion that will 
come over his placid face when he perceives himself in the 
hands of one who finds child's play in demolishing all his ar- 



228 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

guments, and who shows so much more knowledge on the whole 
subject and all its collateral branches that he can scarcely re- 
frain from exclaiming, "Aut Morus out Diabolus." Bolh he 
and the world are probably yet destined to learn that these 
Swedenborgians are downright Antasuses, who no sooner 
touch the ground than they spring up invigorated for the con- 
test, and that they know no other than an upright position. 

New York, Nov. 22, 1847. 
****** 

The remarks upon Davis jump with my own ideas very 
accurately. I have just written a long letter to Mr. Parsons — 
a Memoir e Justificative of my course in relation to Mesmerism, 
which has drawn upon me the deep disapprobation of the Bos- 
ton circle. I take the ground that if Davis' book is genuine 
it claims justly all the notice and notoriety I have given it as 
a psychological marvel calculated, and in Providence probably 
designed, to explode the prevailing notions respecting the nec- 
essarily truthful character of every thing emanating from the 
spiritual world. Messrs. P. & Co., can see nothing but the hor- 
rid infidelity of the work, and plainly intimate that they regard 
it as a humbug. This is very idle. It is a book of preternatural 
origin. I was indeed sadly disappointed in its latter portions, 
which I had never read till published. But it is equally avail- 
able to our purposes whether true or false intrinsically. For 
myself, however, I receive and admire the philosophy more and 
more, and Mr. Reed's assault in the last New Jerusalem Maga- 
zine is one of the most impotent failures I have ever seen. If 
he is right, Swedenborg is undoubtedly wrong in some of the 
grandest points of his system. 

New York, April 8, 1848. 

****** 

" As to your ideas on the ministry, I do not feel sufficiently 
at home on the subject to trust my own judgment. But let 
them be presented. They will excite discussion, and discussion 
will elicit truth. Theoretically I am myself extremely radical 
on almost all points pertaining to Church order. I know very 
little about official rank or character except as constituted of 
Truth and Good. I preach simply because I think I have 
things to communicate that will be of use to my fellow-men. I 
do not perceive that I should derive any more authority from a 
hundred ordinations, and as to trines and degrees in the ministry 
it is all in nubibus to me. There will necessarily be a trine of 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 229 

some kind in this, as in every thing else, and this will take cai'e 
of itself. So as to Conventions, as now constituted, I ignore 
them altogether. I acknowledge nothing that identifies itself 
with 'the structure of the Lord's Church. Still, my mind is 
open to the light of evidence, if any can be afforded ; but it 
must be very clear. 

New York, Dec. 22, 1848. 

I must confess to a deep-rooted aversion to the very name of 
" priest" and "priesthood." I look upon the very institution, as 
for ages existing and acting, as the bane of the church, and the 
chiefest enginery of the pit against its true interests. At the 
present day I see nothing more disastrous than the effects of 
what is termed the " stated ministry." It leads to a passive and 
apathetic dependence on a superior order of men, who are 
virtually looked upon as hired to take care of the religious con- 
cerns of their congregations, thus virtually relieving them from 
the duty, except as it respects attendance on the sabbath-wor- 
ship, which after all is not so much worship as instruction — 
that is, ministry to the understanding instead of the will, which 
latter is the true principle to be brought into play in worship. 
The consequence is, that individual responsibility is merged 
and swamped in the paramount sway of the clerical order, and 
the process of personal regeneration is constantly at the lowest 
ebb. 

****** 

As to ecclesiastical authority, I know nothing of it. My au- 
thority as a teacher of truth comes in with the knowledge and 
the love of it. If I have important spiritual truth, and am in_ 
the real good of life, I am authorized to proclaim that truth 
without seeking credentials from any power under Heaven. 
This is one of the fii-st and simplest of all natural rights, — one 
of the clearest of rational intuitions, and I cannot consent to 
extinguish this light, even out of deference to Swedenborg, 
provided he requires it, which I am not at all satisfied that he 
does. But, however this may be, my own conviction is un- 
wavering that the ministry, in its present constitution, must be 
broken down beibre the real internal life of the church can be 
sensibly advanced ; for the existing system operates as a license 
to laxness — a dispensation from duty — to the great mass of 
the church. The distinction between laity and clergy, as now 
held and acted upon, I regard as fraught with all manner of 
20 



230 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

mischief to the Lord's Kingdom ; yet I am as fully convinced 
as any one, that & function of teaching exists in the church, but 
not as the prerogative of a distinct order — a hierarchy. 

**"***** 

And now, as to your pamphlet, you will have inferred 
that it has done little towards detaching me from my previous 
ground. At the same time, I can afford to do justice to it as 
an argument, though in the main, I think, rather of an ana- 
logical than a logical type. It shows, however, immense re- 
search in threading the line of evidence and in the collation 
of items, and by carrying up the institute to an origin in the 
Ancient Church, you have put the whole matter of succession 
on a new basis, which cannot soundly be disregarded by the 
letter-men and the patristics. For myself, I cut the Gordian 
knot by the sword of the spirit — in the doctrine of progress, 
severing the past from the future and bringing in a new order 
of things, in which the whole church is a " royal priesthood." 

New York, Jan. 27, 1852. 

****** 

In reference to your being a u Southern man and a slave- 
holder," I should be sorry indeed to believe that that fact would 
operate to close any mind in the New Church against what you 
may write in that spirit of candor and fairness which I have 
always recognized in your essays. 

In this connection may I say that I have been long exer- 
cised with a deep anxiety to know the views of our Southern 
brethren on the subject of their relation to the institution. 
Indeed, I have thought that the great interests of the Church 
called for a kindly and Christian discussion of the subject. I 
have had for some time an able article on hand, entitled " Aph- 
orisms on Slavery and Abolition " by an esteemed brother (A. 
E. F.), who has passed several years at the South, and whose 
mind is burdened, as mine is, with the gravamen of the theme. 
Cannot the subject be discussed without engendering alienation 
of feeling on either side ? Is there not a Neio Church aspect 
of the matter which it behoves us all to apprehend ? Our dis- 
tinguished northern abolitionist, Gerrit Smith, a man of princely 
nature and princely fortune, which he almost lavishes in the 
cause of philanthropy, is coming slowly but surely into the 
New Church. And it is desirable to know what platform there 
is on which such a man can stand and hold fellowship with such 
men as yourself and Mr. Crallc at the South. 



OF PROF. CEOP.CE BUSH. 231 

New York, Feb. 26, 1852. 

* * * * * * 

I shall suggest some matters of serious thought to our good 
brethren of the South, but I shall do it in such a manner that 
it will be very wicked of them to be offended with me. There 
will be so much of the nightingale in my roaring that they will 
find it hard to think hard of me. But let time tell. 

New York, March 14, 1852. 

■Hfr -3£ 3fc 3fr % % 

I am much interested in the view of your remarks in re- 
gard to the colonization of the African race. The idea is 
altogether new to me, but I am a great entertainer of new 
ideas. I do not readily commit myself, but I am quick to con- 
sider. There is certainly great weight in what you say respect- 
ing the climatic allocation of the negroes, and I trust you will 
give me credit for not being a very ferocious abolitionist, when 
I can so fully appreciate the force of the Southern side of the 
argument, whether new or old. 

Suppose that when I have got through with my series of 
comments on the subject, you throw together your thoughts on 
that particular theme, and let me publish them. I think they 
will do good on both sides the line (M. & D.'s). 

The several tractates you were so good as to commend to my 
attention, I have not as yet looked up, and the reason is, that 
the light in which I treat the subject is altogther the moral. 
I wish to find out and point out what conscience has to do with 
the matter, for this, if I mistake not, is the lever which is to do 
all the prying in the case. In this aspect of it, I do not find 
anywhere much that helps me. The abolitionists have strong 
logic, but they lack the right spirit, and cannot make allow- 
ances. The pro-slavery folks, on the other hand, plant their 
defences at the wrong points, and have too much of the sic 
visum Diis in their philosophy. As in most other things, I 
stand a good deal alone in my position, not exactly fellow- 
shipped by Trojan or Tyrian, but mightily little moved all 
along by the opinions, whims, or dislikes of others. 



LETTER 

FROM REV. HENRY W. BELLOWS, NEW YORK. 



Walpole, N. H., July 35, 1860. 

Rev. and Dear Sir: — You asked me recently to com- 
municate any recollections I might be happy enough 
to have of the late lamented Prof. Bush. I regret now 
that I did not more carefully cultivate the opportunities 
which his residence in New York and his cordiality 
towards me offered. But an active ministry in that 
great city makes professional intimacies almost impos- 
sible to those not brought together by routine. Prof. 
Bush generally afforded me his friendship and society 
when he was in the best orthodox standing, known as 
a scholar and honored as a Christian, and I a young 
and obscure minister of an unpopular sect in a strange 
city. He was probably drawn towards me by some 
dim foreshadowing of the isolation into which he was 
about to plunge by a conscientious following of the 
light which his earnest studies unexpectedly shed upon 
the opinions the promulgation of which had raised him 
to renown. At my first acquaintance, in 1839, I think, 
he was just beginning, apparently, to suspect that he 
had not attained in the popular system of Calvinistic 
Trinitarianism to absolute and final truth. This gave 
him a sympathy with inquirers, and dissenters from 
the multitude. I very gratefully recall the strength his 
friendly visits gave me during the first year I was in 
New York — for they were the first tokens of religious 
sympathy that reached me from beyond the limits 
of our little Unitarian body. Before I knew who he 



MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 233 

was, for several months I had noticed quite regularly, 
on Sunday mornings, a thin, scholarly form, with a 
worn and earnest but benignant face looking down on 
my pulpit, in Chambers Street, from a back seat in the 
gallery of the church. When he came and introduced 
himself, I recognized my grave and learned-looking 
hearer, and felt a thrill of pride and gratitude that he 
should find any thing satisfying in the first preaching 
of a crude young man regarded by his Christian neigh- 
bors generally as little better than an infidel. Soon 
after, he brought with him to my house another schol- 
arly man, then an orthodox pastor, but since better 
known as Author and Educator, whose generous and 
gentlemanly discussion of the points in controversy 
between the Trinitarians and the Unitarians, inspired 
me with profound respect. These men had been at- 
tracted to each other by the native liberality of their 
minds and the sweetness of their dispositions. They 
were attracted to me by the isolation of my position, 
and a faith in the earnestness of my convictions. I 
recollect Prof. Bush surprising me one day with the ex- 
pression of his opinion that a revival of religion was 
more likely to break out under the preaching he heard 
in Chambers Street, than under any he could at that 
time find in New York. 

It is unnecessary for me to describe the progress of 
Prof. Bush's change of opinions, or all that he suffered 
from that change in the estimation of the Orthodox 
communions. I did not see enough of him at the 
time to "make my testimony of any peculiar value. 
But I remember that to me, to whom he might so 
naturally have looked for sympathy in the coldness 
and averted countenances of his old friends, he uttered 
at no time any words of bitterness or disappointment. 
I do not remember one syllable of complaint or surprise 
or chagrin. He seemed entirely possessed with the 
love of truthj and devoted to its pursuit with no refer- 
ence to the effect his conclusions might have upon his 
interest as an extensive author whose fortune was in- 
20* 



234 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

vested in the orthodoxy of the numerous works he had 
published, and which were then enjoying a wide rep- 
utation. Nor did he seem to count it a trial worth 
murmuring at, that his studies led him in a solitary 
path, out of the crowded fellowship he had long en- 
joyed, and to probable poverty and loneliness. I do 
not know that he was abused or persecuted by his old 
friends. It was difficult to speak against a man so 
transparently clean of heart and upright in life. I sup- 
pose he was quietly dropped, and his works no longer 
recommended. But he certainly carried with him into 
all his heresies, nothing but love to all men, friends or 
foes. I honored and loved his character and spirit as I 
have done that of few men. 

Although Prof. Bush was never, that I know, in any 
theological sympathy with the Unitarians, and although 
he ultimately adopted opinions very different from theirs 
— he seemed at all times a man of thoroughly en- 
lightened mind. It was difficult to reconcile many 
of his views with the evidences of general soundness 
of intellect which his conversation and writings so 
abundantly furnish. I always had a singular and an- 
omalous distinction in the respect I felt for him and his 
powers of mind, and the want of respect I felt for his 
conclusions. Nor am I able now to understand how 
so candid, acute, and many-sided a person, full of 
learning and literature, and with a perfect love of truth, 
should have entertained so many opinions at war with 
the conclusions of the normal mind of all ages.* For 



* With the utmost respect for our valued correspondent and the de- 
nomination of Christians which he represents, we would humbly suggest 
that what is here called the normal mind of all ages is predominantly natural. 
In saying this, we do not refer to that well-known spirituality which has 
always been identified with piety and religion ; we refer to a certain spiritu- 
ality of the intellect — a refinement and interiority of mind which may, or 
may not, exist with more or less of true piety ; (certainly it is not unfriendly 
to it, though it may exist without it) ; but which is precisely that which 
does not pertain to the common natural, or the common intellectual. It 
is emphatically the spiritual mind. And it is this which can believe so 
many things, and "entertain so many opinions at war with the [so-called] 
normal mind of all aires." It is this", and nothing but this, which has its 



OF FROF. GEORGE BUSH. 235 

Prof. Bush's recluse and scholastic appearance gave a 
false impression of unacquaintance with the practical 
world, and habits of partial observation. Those ac- 
quainted with his conversation or his writings will re- 
member that few men were as well read up in modern 
thought, as sensitive to the suggestions of the times, or 
as rich in a vocabulary fresh from the mint of to-day's 
experience. His easy, pliable, and popular style gave 
evidence of a flexible, attentive, and sympathetic nature 
which learning could not bury in the past, nor blunt to 
the present. Had Prof. Bush enjoyed better health, or 



seat above the natural, in a more interior region of the soul, but which 
remains unopened and undeveloped in so many persons, and which may 
distinguish the unlearned and the simple quite as readily, frequently more 
readily, than the learned. In fact, the human mind is so distinguished 
by orderly degrees, substantially existing one within another, not unlike 
a nest of boxes, that it is very possible for one to have an immense natural, 
with very little of the distinctive spiritual yet open or operative. Such 
men as Theodore Parker and Ralph Waldo Emerson, and many scientific 
and philosophical celebrities, whether of Christian or anti-Christian be- 
lief, are instances in point. They may have much refinement of senti- 
ment and morals, and religion too, such as it is, and be of the purest 
character ; but they live for the most part in the outermost region of the 
soul. They may go to great depths in the natural, and, with many of 
like state and quality, pass with the reputation of profundity. But they 
do not and cannot believe easily in spiritual things (bating the general 
ideas of God, religion, and immortality); the other world is in a thick 
cloud to them ; they doubt the nearness of angelic and spiritual beings ; 
they cannot familiarize themselves with the mansions of eternity ; they 
do not believe it possible that any thing beyond the Scriptures can be dis- 
tinctly seen and known ; and of course they are shut to all that mighty 
system of truth and revelation which the Seer of the New Jerusalem has 
made known to us. They call these things, to a great degree at least, 
"abnormal" — not pertaining to a sound and normal and healthy con- 
dition of the mind. So true it is that " God hath hidden these things 
from the wise and prudent, and revealed them unto babes." Not neces- 
sarily to babes in intellect, and not necessarily to large and powerful in- 
tellects, but to the innocences, the simplicities, the affections of the pure 
and spiritual in mind, however existing. Many a poor man or woman, 
of very little culture, will believe more easily than the wise and mighty 
— understand more readily — and perceive with an intuition far superior 
to the most correct, and cultivated, and expanded natural reason. 

Thus do we account for our " candid, acute, and many-sided person, 
full of learning and literature, and with a perfect love of truth, entertain- 
ing so many opinions at war with the conclusions of the normal [natural] 
mind of all ages." — Ed. 



236 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

had he begun his theological career under liberal in- 
fluences, he could have rendered still more valuable 
contributions to his favorite science and to the cause 
of religion. Very respectfully yours, 

Henry W. Bellows. 
Rev. Mr. Fernald. 



LETTER 

FROM A CLERGYMAN OF THE "ORTHODOX" CHURCH. 



Mrs. Bush : — My Dear Madam, — In the deep sor- 
row with which you have been visited by an inscruta- 
ble Providence, you have my warmest sympathy. The 
friend, the counsellor, the companion, the sharer of 
your joys and sorrows, the father of your children, and 
the first human object of your heart's love — he has 
passed from your sight. His footstep no longer greets 
you on your threshold, nor his accents fall in soft music 
upon your ear. You speak his name, but he gives no 
answer ; you call, but he comes not. You walk where 
he walked, but he is not with you, and you sit where 
he sat, but he is not there. He comes to you in your 
dreams, but does not stay — it is a dream-visit. Your 
mind's eye sees him everywhere, but your body's no- 
where. He is gone, but not lost. Memory holds him 
still enshrined, and you live over and over again the 
happy days of your united life — two streams flowing 
evenly in one — two hills with no valley between — 
two suns merging their light and heat to make one 
solar, social system. 

But the past, like him, is gone, and like him too 
comes back only in dreams, and retrospective visions, 
and thus returns but to tell you how alone you are. 
And yet you are not alone. Those two dear children 
are with you, whom you love more for his sake than 
for your own. You are not alone, for He who says to 
his sorrowing ones, " I will not leave you comfortless, 
I will come unto you," is a " present help in trouble." 



238 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

An all-wise Sovereign, he is yet a pitying Father. Not 
an absent Deity, sitting a compassionless observer in 
the centre of a universal and unapproachable indiffer- 
entism. In Christ, He is a sympathizing friend, who 
bore our sickness and carried our sorrows. I see him 
with you — I hear the words of comfort He whispers 
to your troubled soul, " Fear thou not, for I am with 
thee, be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will help 
thee — yea, I will strengthen thee, yea, I will uphold 
thee with the right hand of my righteousness. When 
thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, 
and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. 
When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not 
be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon thee." 
Words of human sympathy have little healing power 
for wounds which the death-angel makes. But these 
words of the Lord are a sovereign balm to heal. They 
are living, loving, and can never fail you. 

But I wished to write, not so much to you as about 
him of whom you have been bereaved. It may be of 
little consequence to you what I thought of him, since 
you know his thorough excellence as I could not, and 
had trial of it in years of purest and holiest intimacy. 
Still it is a pleasure to me to dwell on those traits 
which distinguished him as a gentleman and a scholar, 
and endeared him to me as a Christian and a friend. 

I was never able, as you know, to agree with him 
in his acceptance of the theology of Emanuel Svveden- 
borg, nor in his avouchment of the Swedish seer's 
claim to infallibility in the announcements of his phil- 
osophical and theological doctrines. Nor have I been 
able to see how with his great learning and habits of 
independent thought, the dicta of any mere man could 
have secured from him such implicit confidence as did 
the teachings of his favorite author.* Perhaps, how- 
ever, in his noble transparency of character, he puts the 



* He believed that the man wrote by authority and protection from the 
Lord — at least in all essentials. — Ed. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 239 

key into my hands, when he says, in his " Statement 
of Reasons," " I am constrained by fealty to truth 
to acknowledge that the circumstances of my being 
brought about this time into contact with the phe- 
nomena of Mesmerism, had a most decided bearing 
upon the progress of my convictions, nor do I scruple 
to say that in all human probability I should never have 
come to the position which I now occupy, had it not 
been for the overwhelming evidence of truth derived 
from- this source." 

Guilelessness made a large part of his generous 
nature. That unsuspicious disposition which every 
one loves was a marked trait in his character. It lies 
so in the direction of the second of those two great com- 
mandments, — love to our neighbor, — that it seemed 
in him almost identical with it. He projected his own 
good-heartedness into the objective case, and then took 
other men to be as guileless as himself. From his 
earlier cloistered life, he looked out upon a world, in part 
of his own " mental creations, or projections." This 
subjected him often to disappointment, and sometimes 
to practical inconvenience and detriment. It was the 
intensity of this virtue that led him so fully to endorse 
the seership and revelations of Andrew Jackson Davis, 
from which position, his discrimination led him finally 
to recede.* 

I was impressed with the candor with which he lis- 
tened to an objection or admitted a difficulty. " That 
is a view," he would sometimes say, " of which I had 
not thought. I must examine it." " There is a real 
difficulty there — a mystery which I cannot explain." 
This trait, together with his unbounded good-nature, 
made him a most agreeable private disputant, and an 
admirable controversialist. He was very confident that 



* He endorsed liim in part, for the manifest truth of certain portions of 
the book referred to, before he knew what the whole character of the work 
■vvas to be; but as soon as he discovered the bold infidelity of it, he 
rejected it immediately. His position on this subject may be seen from 
the several allusions to it in this book. — Ed. 



240 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

he was right and his opponent wrong. But he never 
lost his temper and never railed. If he could not reason, 
at least to his own satisfaction, he would give up the 
case, or hold it in suspense, awaiting further light. In 
the ardor of his first love for Svvedenborg, he thought 
his philosophy would clear theology of all its diffi- 
culties. But further study led him in candor to admit 
that the same difficulty attaches to the Swede's sys- 
tem respecting the origin of evil as to any other. " A 
thousand ages' pondering," he said, "can bring- forth 
no other result." 

At first he received, as you know, with the same 
enthusiasm, Swedenborg's Conjugal Ethics, even that 
part which is a stone of stumbling to so many less 
earnest receivers, and with the same confidence in its 
purity and supernatural origin, as in his doctrine 
of the Lord. More careful examination, however, 
and the refining magic of woman's pure and holy 
love, — her tender assiduties and vine-like eclaircissing 
clingingness changed his assent into dissent. This 
brought his speculative and his practico-moral philos- 
ophy on this subject into harmony. And his usual 
candor led him frankly to admit that he could not 
see how those teachings could be acted upon without 
producing the most disastrous results. He thought 
the new doctrines would free all subjects from mys- 
tery, but this, he says, " is left in a profound mystery." 
" I confess we are here required to wade in deep 
waters." * 

He was one of the most accomplished Biblical schol- 
ars in the country. Philology was his forte. He was 
entirely at home in the original languages of the Scrip- 
tures, and their cognate tongues. These were the study 
of his life, and his qualifications in these respects as 
an interpreter of the Word of God, greatly exceeded 

* The teachings here alluded to are not the general ethics of the work 
01 Conjugal Love, but those which speak of legitimate separations, not 
divorces, of married partners for apparently trivial causes, or vitiated 
states of mind and body. See Con. Love, Nos. 252 — 254. — Ed. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 241 

those of Swedenborg, who never read a word of He- 
brew till he was fifty-five years of age, nor till then had 
undertaken any systematic study of the Bible. Your 
wifely heart will excuse me to your Swedenborgian 
head when I say that, in my judgment, Bush's compact 
" Notes " on the Pentateuch, in every excellence of a 
pure, consistent, spiritual, and reliable interpretation of 
the Word, far exceeds the ponderous " Arcana Cclestia." 
Had he continued them upon the broad basis on which 
they were commenced, they would have proved a rich 
and lasting boon to all lovers of genuine Biblical sci- 
ence, and have brought as much honor to the author 
as would be safe for any one man to possess. And 
yet the humble confidence of the greater in the less 
was singularly childlike and Johannic. " He must in- 
crease, but I must decrease." At the very point where 
the disciple was strongest, and the teacher weakest, the 
faith of the former was put to the severest test. " When 
we come to the Biblical interpretations," he says, "we 
feel in regard to many of them more like one who is 
led by the hand in the dark; though we find it easy to 
justify to ourselves the most unbounded confidence in 
our guide." 

The charm of his manly bearing was a passport in 
all societies. His elegant simplicity and blandness of 
manner gave him a centripetal force that drew to him 
all the truly refined in high life or low. His social 
culture, and his broad, deep, many-sided, genial nature 
made him a favorite in the social republic as his genius 
and learning did in the republic of letters. But far 
above all these shone out in his life the light of his 
quiet, unobtrusive piety. Yqh, my dear madam, knew 
his interior life of faith and |ove as no other one did. 
You know how constantly the flame of it was fanned 
and fed by prayer and the Divine "^Yord. You know 
how much he felt the want of sympathy in the New 
Church, in, his views on prayer, and how earnestly he 
labored to introduce a change in that respect. 

This ^-element which he found in the Old Church, 
21 



242 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

he carried with him over into the New. It produced 
a breadth of character, and a reach of view which were 
not easily adjusted to his new relations. " The bed 
was shorter than that he could stretch himself on it, 
and the covering narrower than that he could wrap 
himself in it." His free spirit was too progressive for 
his co-religionists, and soon left him not quite at his 
ease with them, or them with him. He brought a 
powerful pen to the advocacy of their speculative doc- 
trines, but he could not have a lock put on his lips 
when he wished to open them for the oppressed. He 
did not leave the free and spacious mansions of the 
Old God-ordained Church to be cribbed or closeted 
Within the legislative confines of a man-made Conven- 
tion. The Church with him is not a Presbytery or a 
Convention, or any mundane external organism, but a 
" dispensation." He held that an individual, if he be 
regenerate, is a church in its least form; and with the 
fathers of New England, that " the Catholic church is 
the whole company of the redeemed, who are effect- 
ually called from life and death unto salvation in 
Jesus Christ." He did not allow a monopoly of the 
priesthood or ministry. Every man was a minister if 
he had charity, and was competent to teach. And 
when the rulers could not bind him by conventional 
withes, they cast him out. 

Speculatively he was a New Churchman, but vitally 
he was of the Old Church also. His Gnosis was Swe- 
denborgian, but his Pistis, Pauline. From his Swe- 
denborgian stand-point, logically, he said that the old 
doctrines are falsities, and the faith of the Old Church 
is dead, though he said this neither often nor loud. 
But his practical judgment set aside both his logic and 
his stand-point, and his "heart burned within him 
while he talked with us by the way," and in our eu- 
charistical fellowship. Swedenborg taught him that 
there is no life or love with those who hold to the doc- 
trine of a personal trinity, and justification by faith 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 243 

alone,* and with his head, he partly believed it. But 
in his heart, he would as soon have believed him if he 
had said there is no heat in fire, or light in the sun, for 
the light of his own life had been kindled there, lie 
felt to the last the holy affinities of the higher Christian 
life still holding him in the communion of the good. 
He saw it in the self-denial, in the heaven-born charity, 
in the spiritual warmth, the glowing zeal and aggres- 
sive forces that marked the life-movements in all the 
ranks of that Church which is as old as Abel and as 
multitudinous as are the good in every generation. 

But he has gone where the discrepancies of the head 
and heart are all harmonized — where the godly of all 
sects and ages constitute the church of the first-born in 
heaven. Here he saw through a glass darkly, but then 
face to face. Here he knew in part, but now he knows 
even as he is known. 



* Not quite so bad as this. Swedenborg has some passages which seem 
to imply great harshness of judgment towards those who persist in such 
fundamental errors as are here alluded to, or in a personal trinity as he 
describes it, and in the principle of mere faith alone; but he everywhere 
distinguishes between errors which are only of the head, and which may 
pass off, either in this world or the next, and those which are the result of 
a confirmed evil principle in the heart. He also makes a distinction be- 
tween the quality of that kind of good or love which is connected with 
falsity, and the quality of that which is united to pure truth. It is for 
the want of a fuller discernment of this distinction in his writings, that 
he sometimes appears uncharitable and false to mere errorists. — Ed 



LETTER 

FROM A LADY OF THE "ORTHODOX" CHURCH. 



Rev. Mr. Fernald, — Dear Sir: — If by walking 
through the gardens of Memory, I am able to pluck 
some tiny flowers worthy to blossom in the wreath 
which you are twining in memoriam of our departed 
friend, I shall account it a pleasure and a privilege. It 
is many years since my orbit crossed with that of the 
good Professor, but I well remember my first impres- 
sions concerning him. Possessed of a rare, unselfish na- 
ture, with one of those hearts that never grow old, gifted 
with a vigorous mind, marvellous for his acquisitions in 
all departments of learning, yet without egotism, nay, 
full of the simplicity and single-heartedness of a child, 
his "sphere," to use a New Church expression, was most 
genial, and at once attracted me. Although he after- 
wards changed his ecclesiastical latitude and longitude, 
yet those early impressions of his character were but 
confirmed until he closed his earthly career. Indeed, 
so fresh and guileless was he even to the very last, that 
one would almost have supposed he had drank at the 
fabled fountain of immortal youth. This trait was the 
more striking in him, as his long bachelorship in an 
upper room in the great Babel, which he was wont to 
call his " den" would ordinarily be supposed a sufficient 
excuse for a cynical disposition. But neither this, nor 
years spent in digging dry roots in the driest of all 
languages, in the least withered that generous nature. 
Bookworm as he was, sitting in his arm-chair planted in 
nearly the centre of his sanctum, and completely walled 



MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 245 

in with volumes of every size and shape and tongue, 
he yet had nothing of those accretions which usually 
form about such a personage. Indeed, he was too 
genuine a character to be spoiled by any amount of 
learning, and he would frolic with his little girl, and 
fire crackers with his boy, as if he were the child in 
years that he was in heart. His playful humor and 
contagious laugh will not soon be forgotten by any 
who have once enjoyed them. 

There was frequently a vein of this humor running 
through his letters, as a few instances may illustrate. 

" Order reigns in Warsaw, and Peace perches on the 
plume of your goose-quill and mine. Let us go and 
chant a psean in the Temple of Concord, and then you 
can return home, while I busy myself in bringing out a 
new battering-ram to bear upon fortress." 

" Ask him to put a poor Polyglot in the way of 
earning his bread and butter. I'll back myself against 
any Latinizer he can pick up, though as you perceive 
I do not always stick to the King's English." 

" If you will not catechize me relative to any other 
by-gones, the apologies for which I have forgotten, I 
shall keep in good spirits to the end of my sheet, and 
may some time write another, but if you ' glow'r,' good- 
by." 

" The burden of a grasshopper seems to break my 
back. The fact is, I am worn out — done over — broken 
down. I want the services of Dr. Diet and Dr. Quiet. 
Dr. Merryman can come afterwards, if he is sent for." 

" Conclusum est. If we do not start soon, we shall 
go into liquidation so completely, that there will not be 
enough of us left to take the trip. "While then the 
melting process is going on, we have determined to 
truss up what remains and take our departure." 

" Let me be as severe and truculent as I may towards 
your perversities, you are determined that the salt shall 
not be spilled at our feast, and I am compelled — willy- 
nilly — to say amen." 
21* 



246 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

" Petition. — The undersigned do hereby humbly and 
respectfully petition, supplicate, pray, invoke, implore, 
and beseech, in behalf of the damsel M., that her honored 
parents would consent to her prolonging her sojourn for 
another week in the house of her heretical hosts, foras- 
much as the aforesaid damsel doth not consider herself 
to have been, or to be likely to be, fully satisfied, sati- 
ated, and replenished with a sufficiency of the pleasures, 
varieties, gayeties and gauds, of this present world of 
New York and Brooklyn, unless she be allowed to add 
thereunto the exquisite satisfaction, enjoyment, and de- 
light of attending the on-coming party of our venerable 
friend, who would fain grace and adorn said contem- 
plated assemblage with all the beauty as well as the 
chivalry which the circle of his youthful acquaintance 
will allow to be gathered together unto the reunion 
proposed to be held in the halls, parlors, and down- 
stairs dining-room of the habitation wherein the maiden 
aforesaid now temporarily abideth. 

" If it seemeth good to the respected parents now 
sought unto and addressed, to grant the above petition, 
most devoutly urged, we the petitioners, as in duty 
bound, will ever pray, etc." 

Here follows an array of "signatures duly author- 
ized." 

I suppose it is generally known that after his defec- 
tion from the Old Church, the receipts from his invalu- 
able commentary fell from a handsome income to a 
mere pittance. To this he playfully alludes in the 
following extract : " I have become a rampant heretic 
for believing the truth, and the consequence is an awful 
' minis/ting of means?" 

That he embraced what he solemnly believed to be 
the truth, no one can doubt who knew what he sac- 
rificed to his convictions. All must admit that in this 
he steered entirely clear of worldly wisdom or selfish 
policy. Nor did he content himself with simply ex- 
pressing his views. Presuming that what was so plain 
to him, needed only to be presented in order to win 



OF PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 247 

assent, with his wonted enthusiasm he sought to bring 
others into the New Church. 

" The light," he says, " will by and by struggle 
through the clouds. The azure clefts are gently open- 
ing, and the cerulean vault will ere long appear in the 
glory of its expansion, and the splendor of its ruling 
orb. If you would taste the sweetness of certainty 
touching the sanctities of the soul, and the hopes that 
nourish them, read and ponder the pages of the Swed- 
ish seer. Wonder, joy, praise — all elements which 
form the inner harmonies of the spirit — awake under 
the touch of his revelations, and like Paul, you know 
not whether you are in the body or out of the body. 
But alas ! this piping and charming, I fear me, will be 
for the present bootless. Nevertheless, I charge thee to 
love me as well as may be, notwithstanding I may seem 
to talk not ' after the wisest.' " 

" Pray reconsider your conclusion. Read and 

see if you do not hold up both hands in a rapture of 
amazement. You will be astonished that all this wis- 
dom has been a century uncorked, and scarcely a sip of 
it has ever come to your lips." 

" I rejoice in a flood of new light just obtained on the 
subject of the genealogies of Matthew and Luke. Get 
some green silk blinds ready to save your eyes." 

However far from the old landmarks Professor Bush 
may have strayed, no one who intimately knew him 
could fail to note his deep, earnest piety. Though cast 
out as a Gentile, Dy many of his own faith, for follow- 
ing out, as he ever did, his honest convictions of truth 
and duty, yec he cherished no resentments. There was 
not one drop of gall in his nature. Hence, his contro- 
versies were marked by a spirit of rare courtesy and 
kindness. It was not in him to quarrel with man or 
beast, and though often wounded by what seemed un- 
kind and uncharitable remarks, he never retorted in like 
fashion. The sweet, childlike simplicity and purity of 
his character, always so marked, seemed, if possible, to 
increase during the last two or three years of his life, as 



248 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

did also most manifestly, his delight in heavenly com- 
munion. He was eminently a man of prayer, and the 
indifference to this subject of many in the New Church, 
was a matter of painful regret to him. He brought it 
earnestly before his own people, and labored persever- 
ingly to remove what he considered their mistaken im- 
pressions with regard to it. 

I recall an interesting conversation which I had with 
him, a little more than a year previous to his departure. 
He told me that his communion with God had for some 
months been increasingly close and very precious ; — that 
he often lay awake in the watches of the night, medi- 
tating on the infinite love of God, and that he could not 
restrain his tears at the views he had. He added that 
he felt like saying to those he met, " My dear brethren, 
my dear sister, do you get near the fountain ? " 

It was not far from this time that he spoke to me 
with great enthusiasm of the works of some of the 
Puritan fathers, which he assured me were " exceed- 
ingly rich." And taking down one and another from 
the shelves where they stood ranged with his favorite 
authors, he read several passages of rare unction with 
marked emphasis and delight. 

As he was unconsciously to himself and to us all, 
approaching nearer and nearer the invisible world, the 
Divine Spirit seemed to fill his heart more and more. 
In those last scenes when earth was fast receding from 
his view, he often read from a small edition of Thomas 
a Kempis, which he was accustomed to carry in his 
pocket. This invaluable book, with the Word of God, 
which had become increasingly precious to him, at 
length came to constitute his almost exclusive reading. 
After removing to Rochester, he wrote : — 

" We have been now nearly two weeks in our new 
home, and we have found it almost an earthly paradise. 
We are embosomed in a cluster of all manner of fruit 
trees, now bursting into blossom, and affording foot- 
hold to hundreds of singing birds, which flood the air 



OF PROF. GEOEGE BUSH. 249 

with their carols. Would that you were here in the 
midst of this glorious sheen of earth, sun, and sky ! 

" But alas ! what scene on earth is without its draw- 
backs ? My health is not only poor, but ominously 
bad. The doctor has almost signed my death-warrant 
by the announcement of a heart disease, of which I 
had no suspicion. * * I can only walk a few rods, 
and I get up-stairs at night on my hands and feet. 
The prospect of a soon terminated career is rather 
strong upon me. 

" And what shall I say of myself in this position ? I 
have peace — great peace — peace like a river — peace 
ineffable, the inflow of which is so powerful that I am 
almost constantly at the point of shedding tears, and 
dissolving in tenderness. But observe, this prevailing 
frame is not the result of any special experience founded 
upon the prospect of a speedy departure ; not at all. 
The Lord has been bringing me to it through fervent 
prayer for several months. Blessed be his name for this 
fact." 

A few weeks later he wrote : — 

" Oh, how I wish I could enlarge on the Lord and 
his redemptive work as it now opens before me. But 
I cannot do it. I can only say I am lost as in an ocean 
of Divine love." 

Differ as we might on certain points, yet knowing 
what I did of his inward life, I looked up to him rever- 
ently, longing to be a partaker of his spirit — to share 
his peace. No one who knew him, whether in the Old 
or the New Church, could doubt that he was a dear 
child of God, fast ripening for heaven. 

The fragrance of his memory will never die out from 
among us. Those who were blessed with his friend- 
ship have suffered, and still suffer from a keen sense 
of a loss in their social life that can never be repaired. 
Tn this cold world, we sadly miss his warm, unselfish, 
earnest affection. And if it is so with us, how must it 
be with that widowed heart, where he is enshrined as a 
perpetual presence ? Alas, human language affords no 



250 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

measure of her loss. In the words of her departed 
companion, " May the good Lord with whom are in- 
finite compassions, stay and uphold her spirit by minis- 
trations of his love, flowing into the core of her sor- 
rowing heart." 

But for thee, blest spirit ! we can only rejoice with 
joy unspeakable. 

Oh ! the peace — the peace of heaven! — deep, seraphic, and divine, 
And the boundless bliss and glory which are now forever thine ! 



TRIBUTARY RECORD 

To Prof. George Bush, by Rev. Lyman Whiting, Providence, 

R. L, an intimate friend of the departed, while living in 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 

" Precincts of greatness " surely encompass all 
that is really great everywhere. The bald desert fitly 
spreads its silent wide waste before the silent pyra- 
mids ; and as fitly the grandly fertile prairies skirt the 
great Father of Waters. It is equally true of men. 
That which lies round about them in God's provi- 
dence, is an atmosphere of suggestion as to the men 
themselves. 

A very friendly welcome, not embroidered with much 
formal phrase or manner, opened Prof. Bush's house to 
me as a guest for a few days. A friend of his and 
mine had first opened the heart on both sides, and 
though we met as strangers, we had hardly time to 
notice we were so, before a sense of acquaintance had 
really changed that condition. 

I was young, reverent, curious, and even studious of 
every movement of the famed man welcoming me. 
He then was in his prime ; prosperous and up to work- 
ing speed. 

A kind of atmosphere of character filled the house. 
His manners, tones, attitudes, genial cadences to com- 
mon sayings, and a noticeable barytonic emphasis of 
assent to what his guest might say, and, too, after a 
little time, that visible double movement of mind, one 
being action in a remote superior sphere, a kind of 
higher thought carried on, while staying in the common 
conversational sphere of those around him. 



252 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

His wife and the children (small then) were around 
him, and it took not long to see they were a species of 
household deities to him — spoken to in tones having 
a kind of worship in them, hardly any convention- 
alism of manner being apparent. " Reverence is due 
to a child," said a Roman poet, and Prof. B. seemed 
to me to show the just mode of that truth. 

His singularly strong, dark eye made several sweep- 
ing glances over me, as in the path of some sentence, 
meant a little as a measuring-line and plummet, by 
which to get the dimensions of his guest. After a half- 
hour below, he would have me to his study. 'Twas a 
proud ascent to me. His study ! I'd have climbed a 
glacier to get into it. Such a study ! Books — books, 
on shelves, on chairs, on boxes, on the floor, — piled, 
packed, lying endwise, crosswise, every wise ; — scraps 
of manuscripts, proof sheets, pamphlets, folios, and 
demi-semi-mos, — old wormy Dutch, German, Greek, 
Latin, and English tomes, bristling with paper strips, of 
extracts or references, stuck amid the leaves. A schol- 
ar's workshop, truly ! The entire story ('twas the upper 
one of a Brooklyn house) looked like a crater of let- 
ters, tossed from the regions below, and left to find 
their places as best they could. Now, think of him 
there : his tall, sturdy, yet classic figure ; hair like Nes- 
tor's, face pale, even then 

" Sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought ; " 

his study robe on, the left hand toying in its leisure 
with the huge watch-seal, as he goes from shelf to 
shelf pulling variety after variety from among those 
chaotic treasures, and expatiating like Demosthenes 
upon their contents, history, or character. Here, sir, is 
a rare Aldine ; this is an Elzevir, (exquisite to behold !) 
and here Robert Stevens is reverently cherished in that 
royalest monument of scholarly toil. The Greek The- 
saurus, — and before your wonder at these comes to 
any abatement, the special commentary apparatus be- 
gins to stir the nicer eloquence : Here's " Burrows 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 253 

on Balms " — " fine gold, sir, fine gold." Curious mon- 
ographs, costly importations, rare antiquities, and out- 
of-the-way authors, " out of which I got much help, 
sir," in rapid display engross the notice. 

But treasure-showing tires ; though your surprise 
deepens as you discover how accurately he knows not 
only where every book in those rooms is, but when the 
author lived, and what is the main mark of the book. 
Such disorder to the eye, and such wonderful order in 
the owner's mind, divide your surprise. 

The talk now goes more under surface. That great 
rich field of philosophy, over which he held such mas- 
tery, waves under his words like fields of golden grain 
under autumn winds. Then come discussions of the 
grand organic laws, underlying all words and forms of 
speech ; rich, splendid, are some of his views ! I think, 
indeed, of no part of many conversations with this rare 
scholar, which were so rich, so tenderly devout, even as 
those covering the field of the divine mind inspiring 
human speech, and of man's developing that inspira- 
tion. 

Through several days this hospitable interview 
lengthened, and in the numerous busy conversations 
enjoyed, a world of subjects seemed to have had a 
place. The transition of faith to New Church doc- 
trines was fully, frankly talked through, and, like many 
things seen as marvels in the distance, dwindled in the 
intimacy of close inspection. 

The substructure and essential elements of his spirit- 
ual frame were unchanged. The elemental faith of 
his soul had taken some new expressions and forms of 
representation, but penetrating through them, the ideas 
they covered seemed to be radically the same as those 
of " credible believers " anywhere. His phraseologies 
and visible symbolisms seemed like a new, and rather 
awkwardly worn costume, not officiously paraded, and 
shielded by a very studious sensitiveness, suggesting to 
I am holier than thou " — but 
22 



254 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

rather a costume taken on for reasons satisfying the 
wearer, and not made obtrusive to the visitor. 

It was a part of his greatness to be visibly superior 
to his system in this much — that he could see truth and 
love and goodness just as plainly out of his Church as 
in it. 

His family devotions had been simplified and put 
into line with his new ideas of prayer ; but they seemed 
to be no less devotions. So of all his communicated 
piety. 

In April preceding his decease, he settled his plans 
for going from Brooklyn to Rochester, N. Y. Our 
last interview was near that time. He was reclining 
on his bed, in study robe, as if just resting a little. 
But pallor and loss of strength assured a visitor of his 
sure decline. He had great hopes from the change of 
locality, and desired his tenderly watchful wife to bring 
me a drawing of the cottage and grounds, and with 
his trembling, bloodless finger, pointed out his plans of 
culture and devices for recreation there. 

He then told me of an Article he had begun, upon 
one of the radical questions of the Church terrestrial, 
and the views he should put forth. The calm, distinct 
speech of the sick-room gave a very impressive pathos 
to their enunciation. We did not agree in views, and 
in gentle but free debate traversed the theme. He. 
was seriously considerate, and evidently balanced the 
views minutely. 

The parting was softened by the sympathies of the 
scene, and by the hope of at least one more interview 
before the removal ; but the strong tides of city life 
bore us apart — him to his new home, where the great 
summons reached him much sooner than our fond so- 
licitudes foresaw. 

It is cherished as one of the gems of earthly inti- 
macy, that, as the fissures in the "golden bowl" 
widened, and the "silver cord" was loosening, his 
friendly heart watched for the coming, and oft inquired, 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSIT. 255 

as visitors reached the door, if the writer of these grate- 
ful remembrances had not come now ? 

Among the learned, devout, and serviceable men 
with which the Great Head of the Church enriches 
her history from age to age, his Name " shall never be 
forgotten." 

June, 1860. 



INTERESTING CORRESPONDENCE, 

Kelating to a very Early Period of the Ministry of Rev. Geohge Bush, 
while in the Presbyterian Order. 

Indianapolis, Ind., June 10, 1860. 

Otis Clapp, Publisher, etc. : — I regret that I have 
not preserved a single letter from Mr. Bush, of the 
many which I received. I believe, however, that his 
notes to me were all very brief — just a line or two to 
put me right on a doubt, or to cite me to the right 
book and page, or a word or two to start my mental 
powers in the right direction. He knew well how to 
effect his object, which was ever to make me work out 
my own convictions and conclusions, so that the truth 
should be both absorbed and assimilated. 

After the close of Mr. Proctor's year of service in the 
church at Indianapolis, Rev. George Bush, a licentiate 
of the Presbytery of New York, visited the church by 
invitation, and proving acceptable, was duly called to 
the pastoral charge. He accepted the call, and was 
ordained and installed by the Presbytery of Louisville, 
March 5, 1825. 

The pastoral relation with Mr. Bush was dissolv- 
ed by the Presbytery of Wabash (to whose care the 
church had been transferred), June 22, 1828. Applica- 
tion for this dissolution was made by the church, in 
accordance with the advice of Presbytery, whose action 
therein was based upon a memorial from the church, 
asking advice in view of the fact that Mr. Bush had 
announced his disbelief in the scriptural authority for 
the Presbyterian form of Church Government, and had 
repeatedly and persistently urged his views from the 



MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 257 

pulpit, against the earnest protestations of the Session 
of the Church. A voluminous correspondence, extend- 
ing through many months, took place between the pas- 
tor and Session, before the matter was taken to the 
Presbytery. This correspondence is preserved in full 
among the Records of the Church. 

Though I was then in such a small degree of pre- 
paration to receive truth, yet I easily perceived, to my 
satisfaction, the folly of parting with a man of Mr. 
Bush's ability and most exemplary life, because he 
differed from his Session in regarding the Presbyterian 
form of government as not sustained (or, as I remem- 
ber his words) — as not enjoined by the Word. Mr. 
Bush was then, as ever after, an Independent, in regard 
to matters of external Church Government. 

The above brief history will enable any New Church- 
man to perceive the cause of Mr. Bush's dismissal from 
the church aforesaid, and to form his own opinions 
and deductions concerning the devotion of the Session 
to the graven image which they had set up, or which 
had been set up for them, and compare the same with 
any attempt which has been or may be made within 
the New Church, to set up any similar image. I beg 
leave to say, also, that the following statement tells the 
same story in a somewhat different way : 

In the autumn of 1824, Rev. George Bush, a licens- 
ed clergyman of the Presbyterian denomination, visited 
Indianapolis, and preached many discourses. His the- 
ology was of the then liberal school, he having imbibed 
doctrine at Hanover, and not at Princeton. While not 
hesitating to conform to the " Confession of Faith," 
in regard to Church Government, he believed and 
preached that the ruling elders were but leaders of the 
society, and that every member, of each six, ought to 
have a voice in every matter of external government. 
His mind was of the grand and solemn cast, and was 
manfully walking among the clouds with frequent 
glimpses of the sunlight above and beyond. The 
tones of his voice, his personal bearing and cast of 
22* 



258 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

countenance corresponded with his mental qualities. 
He at once became a favorite with all the church- 
members, except the Session, who seemed to be in 
some doubts as to engaging his clerical services. But 
the earnest wish of the membership, and the some- 
what clamorous expression in his favor by outsiders 
prevailed, and he was ordained and installed as pastor 
in March, 1825. The country was then newly and 
sparsely settled, and Indianapolis was but a village in 
the woods ; yet the church where Mr. Bush minis- 
tered was well filled every sabbath by congregations 
of eager listeners ; though it was frequently remarked 
of the principal ruling elder that he was manifestly 
often very uneasy about something. He smelt out 
danger to the Organization, I suppose. 

Mr. Bush, according to my recollection, seldom al- 
luded to matters of Church Government, in his ser- 
mons or from his pulpit; but it was understood that 
he was pretty freely rebuked in the session room, and 
that he defined his opinion in favor of Independency, 
qualified as above stated, in carrying it so far only as 
to acknowledge the right of every member to vote upon 
the reception of members, their exclusion, and upon all 
matters of external polity. The dissension finally termi- 
nated in Mr. Bush's dismissal in June, 1828. I have a 
very clear recollection that all the veterans were eager 
for his dismissal, and that the less conspicuous mem- 
bers, and especially those who had recently become 
members on " Profession, " were pretty harshly brow- 
beaten by their rulers before they gave in, and were at 
last led to agree to the dismissal, with aching hearts 
and tearful cheeks. One of the ruling elders visited 
my then living, but long since departed wife, two or 
three times, and was quite decided and curt in his ar- 
guments, finally informing her that she must come to a 
conclusion " whether or not she was a Presbyterian." 
She meekly suggested that it was not forbidden by 
the discipline to take the voices of all the membership 
on certain points, especially as they invariably followed 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 259 

their ruling elders ; and with many tears she declared 
her love and admiration for Mr. B. and her convictions 
of his piety and usefulness. But it was again put to 
her that she could not be a Presbyterian and yet ad- 
here to Mr. Bush. Finally, she assented to the dismis- 
sal, signed a paper to that effect, and threw herself on 
a bed, hid her face, and wept and sobbed as if her 
heart were breaking. I, on my part, was deeply indig- 
nant, — albeit that my father was a Presbyterian cler- 
gyman, — and I gave vent to my feelings in no meas- 
ured, and I fear in no very pious, terms. 

The outsiders soon had a meeting, and concluded to 
set up an " opposition line," and have Mr. Bush preach 
to us at the Court House. On application to him, he 
assented to remain during that season, and did so, 
preaching to respectable assemblies every sabbath, or 
nearly so. We gave the good man his bread, etc., in a 
rather disorderly and voluntary way ; but we certainly 
did not make him rich. He left us in great mutual 
good-will ; there was no more trouble in the Presby- 
terian camp, and the most of us outsiders forgot all 
about the matter in a short time. A few remembered 
the man. 

A quarter of a century ago, I could have furnished 
some agreeable anecdotes of Mr. B., or of matters with 
which he was connected. But they have passed from 
my memory. One circumstance, however, is vivid in 
my recollection, for a reason which any New Church- 
man will at once perceive. One day, meeting in the 
street an acquaintance from Bloomington (Ind.), I 
invited him to dine with me. He was a respectable 
farmer, a New Light, or Campbellite preacher, and an 
unpretending, good man. I sent Mr. B. an invitation 
to meet my Bloomington friend ; and he came. After 
dinner they engaged in a free and most amicable con- 
versation upon various religious topics, treating each 
other as gentlemen and Christians do in such discus- 
sions. They rarely dissented one from the other. At 
length they took up the subject of devotional prayer, 



260 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

and agreed that its object ivas not to operate upon the 
Divine Will, for that our God changeth not, and needs 
not to be moved to be gracious to us ; and further, that 
the object of devotional aspirations is to bring us into 
such a state that it becomes possible for God to be gra- 
cious to us in regard to spiritual matters — that if in 
our very hearts we desire any spiritual blessing or de~ 
liverance, we have only to ask, and receive ; and much 
more of the same sort — quite in a New Church man- 
ner. I instantly perceived the self-evident truth of 
what they said, and was glad ; for until that moment 
God had always appeared to my mind as terrible. 
This truth sunk deep into my mind, and became a new 
and very important idea with me, leading me on to a 
gradual freedom of intellect. That idea was my start- 
ing-point, and though, frequently, not thought of for 
weeks and months, it would recur again and again, to 
carry me another short and faltering step. Shamefully 
neglected, I trust it has never been profaned, and never 
may be. The sacred truth which I loved was this : viz., 
" God governs the world." 

In December, 1845, our congressional mess assem- 
bled one evening, in our boarding-house parlor, to take 
tea. No table was spread, but each one took from the 
servants, and placed on his or her plate such refresh- 
ments as were desired. These were deemed social 
meetings, and coteries of two or more engaged in pro- 
longed conversation. On the evening in question Mrs. 
A was my next neighbor, and while I was sip- 
ping my tea, my mail was brought in by a servant. 
Among other matters I found the first number of "the 
Swedenborg Library," published by Mr. Bush, and a 
note next the title page to this effect ; viz., " Will you 
not send a poor man two dollars to help him through 

the world? Ask Mrs. A , for I think she will 

send me two dollars." I handed the note to Mrs. 

A , who immediately handed me two dollars, 

which I remitted to Mr. B., on the next morning, with 
the same sum from myself, and a note expressing my 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 2G1 

pleasure in hearing from him. Three or four numbers 
of the Swedenborg Library came, and were carelessly- 
thrown aside. Mrs. A asked me repeatedly if I 

had read Professor B.'s periodical, and I made the best 
excuse I could for having neglected that act of polite- 
ness to the editor. At length she extorted from me a 
promise that I would read the first number. I did read 
it, and, as I read, my natural eyes opened to the dimen- 
sions of saucers, in wonder that I had now for the first 
time read in a book better theology than I could think. 
I read all the numbers, and got myself introduced to 
Mr. Crutchett, of Washington, who loaned me Swe- 
denborg's writings freely and gladly. I spent most 
of many sabbaths in his library, and rapidly absorbed 
that Truth which to receive and not obey is fatal. 

From that time till about a year before Mr. B.'s de- 
parture to the other life, I wrote long letters and short 
ones to him, and received in return just such brief notes 
as he perceived would be most useful to me. Is it any 
wonder that I revere his memory ? A few weeks before 
his departure, he sent me this message ; to wit, " Tell 
Judge W. that I do not yet despair of his enjoying a 
quiet old age, free from the terrible conflicts of which 
he now complains." 

In giving you a sketch of these incidents, I regret 
that, in order to preserve historical accuracy, I have 
placed myself too much in the foreground, leaving Mr. 
B. in the distance. My objects are to comply with 
the request of the enclosed note, and to present a proof 
that Mr. B. was a spiritual man in 1827, and also an 
instance of the manner in which he sought opportuni- 
ties to draw men's minds to a consideration of the 
truth, which, I learn, was his habit. 

w. w. w. 



SKETCH 



[The following extract from a letter to the publisher will 
serve as an appropriate introduction to the article here given: — 

" Dear Sir : — The minister referred to in the accompanying 
sketch was in after-life known as Professor Bush. Its dis- 
closures were never referred to during his life, and committing 
them to writing was never contemplated. It is now done at 
your request. There are persons living who would recognize 
some of the incidents. The writer does not wish his name dis- 
closed. 

New York, Sep. 3, 18G0."] 

As near as can now be recollected, a sermon was 
preached on the first Sunday evening in April, 1831, in a 
village of some magnitude in the state of New York, on 
the red dragon of the Revelation. Writing from mem- 
ory, the third verse of the twelfth chapter of Revelation 
is assumed as the text. The preacher was apparently 
about thirty years of age, slender and frail, with full 
intellectual developments. He had been in the minis- 
try some five years, a portion of which was in one of 
the Western States, from which he returned impressed 
with the conviction that modern Church organization 
did not accord with that of the apostolic days. This 
led him to an investigation of the whole subject, which 
was at a later period committed to writing. He at 
that time doubted, as it afterwards appeared, the ex- 
istence of authority to constitute a salaried ministry^ 
But to return to the text, he assumed the dragon to be 
the pre-existing pagan power of Rome, and upon this 
assumption the sermon was based ; which was delivered 



MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 2G3 

in a solemn and impressive manner, to a respectable 
audience, and listened to with marked attention, and, 
as it afterwards appeared by their conversation, with 
much satisfaction. After service, a portion of the con- 
gregation, with some of the church officers, accompa- 
nied one of the elders to his house, where the sermon 
continued to be referred to with approval and appro- 
bation, until a stranger present from another part of the 
state, who had remained silent on the subject, was 
applied to for his opinion, which he declined giving, 
and when pressed, gave as a reason, that the congre- 
gation appeared satisfied, and any dissent from their 
unanimous conclusion might be construed into a breach 
of good manners. This but added to the importunity of 
one or more of the minister's friends, when the stranger 
remarked, as nearly as can be recollected, in substance 
as follows : " The Scriptures, in their threefold char- 
acter, refer to the past, the present, and the future ; 
when to the past they are historic, when to the pres- 
ent they preach, and when to the future they prophecy. 
Pagan Rome was pre-existent, and necessarily came 
under the head of the past, and consequently could not 
be included under the head of either present or future : 
whilst the Divine, by whom the book was penned from 
which the text was taken, announced it as a record of 
the things that were shortly to come to pass, and conse- 
quently future, in opposition to the assumption of the 
preacher, rendering his premises erroneous, which, with 
the discourse, necessarily fall." 

The company were evidently disturbed at the sum- 
mary manner in which the whole subject was disposed 
of, and it was rather plainly intimated by the more 
zealous, that such remarks were unbecoming laymen, 
who were not expected to trouble themselves with sub- 
jects of this character. The answer to which was, by 
the stranger, that the remarks were spontaneous, with- 
out perplexity or trouble, and would not have been made 
but at their solicitation, and he should conclude with 
the single remark, that the minister would live to see 



2G4 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

the day he would be ashamed of the discourse he had 
that day preached. Following this, the stranger had a 
dream, which tended to impress these particulars and 
others, before and after, more particularly on his mem- 
ory. He was apparently walking with a friend or ac- 
quaintance, when directly in front of them appeared 
a serpent some two feet in length, which, as they ad- 
vanced, directed its course to a tree in front of them, 
and ascended to its top. The tree was without foliage, 
and when the stranger sounded it, he remarked to his 
companion that it appeared to be dry. To which the 
response was, " but there is honey in it." As the two 
left the tree, the serpent seemed to descend and follow 
at a short distance from them, and when they turned, it 
seemed to stop and remain in a listening attitude, and 
immediately on the right appeared a splendid coach, 
with spirited horses, and the stranger with a coach- 
whip in his hand. His companion was on his left. 
The whip was drawn back, and a blow struck with 
such precision, that the small end of the lash, with a 
snap, fell directly on the serpent's head with such force 
as completely to paralyze him, at which the horse gave 
such a plunge as caused the carriage to shake and 
tremble. The blows were repeated at intervals, a 
second and a third time; the horses in like manner 
springing and shaking the carriage, without seeming 
to move it forward. The whole seemed in some way 
subject to the stranger, who, when the last blow was 
struck, turned to his companion with the remark, 
" What do you think of your serpent now ? " With 
this the dream ended. 

Immediately after, the minister previously alluded 
to entered a stage in which the person designated 
stranger was really journeying, and placed himself on 
the same seat with him, and commenced a conver- 
sation of a religious character which brought on a 
response of more than an hour's duration, and was 
only remitted, as question after question was pro- 
pounded. What was said was evidently entirely new 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 265 

to the querist, and greatly excited his wonder and 
amazement. To the final question, after the stage had 
arrived at its destination — " Do you find many to con- 
cur with you in these sentiments ? " it was answered, 
they were seldom communicated, and never unless by 
request, for it was deemed wrong to cast pearls before 
swine, or to give that which was holy to the dogs. 
With this remark the two parted, but ever after were 
on terms of friendship. From this it is evident a new 
field of thought was opened to this minister, and how 
unwaveringly he continued to explore it, is only known 
to his most intimate friends. He was a man of ex- 
traordinary attainments, but mild and gentle as a child ; 
affable, courteous, and unassuming, but hesitated at no 
sacrifice for the truth's sake. Friends forsook him, and 
poverty stared him in the face; and by some he was 
treated with suspicion, but he braved it all ; was mod- 
est, truthful, and punctual in his pecuniary engagements 
with others. He gained great mastery over his pro- 
pensities, as is evident from the fact, that after his 
change of views he abandoned the use of tobacco, to 
which he was addicted, and he carefully refrained from 
speaking disparagingly or disrespectfully of every one, 
even when he had been assaulted. In conversation, 
bitter and censorious words were avoided. He never 
was, however, reconciled to the idea that there was any 
authority for a salaried priesthood, and for his services 
accepted donations, and was frequently heard to regret 
the want of an income lhat would enable him to serve 
gratuitously in the ministry. He would sometimes, 
however, humorously defend such clergymen by repeat- 
ing the story of the Quaker and the salaried priest. 
The former had inquired of the latter, how he could 
conscientiously accept payment for ministerial services, 
evidently so inconsistent with apostolic usages. His 
reply was, that he had accepted the care of a congre- 
gation, to which he devoted the six days on which it 
was lawful to work for a salary, and gave them his ser- 
vices gratuitously on the sabbath. One of his friends 
23 



266 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

would insist that ministerial appointment and succes- 
sion had been much misapprehended. That the ap- 
pointment of Matthias, the successor of Judas, was by 
nomination of candidates, and an election by ballot, 
precisely as elections are conducted at the present day, 
and not by lot, as has been assumed. That the ap- 
pointment of deacons for the care of certain widows 
referred to a class of both men and women who had 
abandoned their traditionary gods, instead of widows 
in the ordinary acceptation of that word as at present 
used. That the term widows referred to a class who 
had separated themselves from the Gentile worship, 
without being sufficiently instructed to unite with the 
Apostolic Church; that these were the widows who 
were neglected in the daily ministry, and for the care 
of which the deacons were appointed ; that to them 
the formularies of the church were more particularly 
entrusted, such as baptism, the Lord's supper, the set- 
tlement of disagreements, etc., whilst the apostles de- 
voted themselves to the Word. This organization has 
eventuated in the judiciary of the present or the Apos- 
tolic Church, and in the present order of ministry. 



REMINISCENCES 

BY A LADY. 



I remember the first time I ever saw Prof. Bush out 
of the pulpit. It was at the house of Rev. B. F. Bar- 
rett. I was a young girl at the time, and felt no special 
interest in the religious themes upon which he conversed 
with cheerful, subdued enthusiasm. He had just openly 
embraced the views of Swedenborg. Then I could not 
comprehend the largeness of his satisfaction ; but there 
was a wholeness in the impression which he made upon 
me which I shall never forget. 

His carriage, Lis regal head, his clear enunciation, 
and use of just the words required to give the right 
shade to his idea, all struck me ; but through all this 
there seemed to beam forth a nature which a little child 
could understand ; the very manner in which he bent 
his head to listen to the remarks of those who could 
not measure heights with him, seemed to say, " There 
is something of worth in this soul." 

I sat beside him at the tea-table ; and it was a child- 
ish pleasure to me to be so near him. He took no 
notice of me, except to thank me for necessary civ- 
ilities ; but I kept saying in my heart, " O Prof. Bush, 
I wish you were my uncle ! " It seemed as if it would 
be so easy to confess my failings and temptations to 
him, and as if he would benignantly strengthen my 
highest aspirations, instead of condemning my short- 
comings. 

After that, when I used to meet him on Broad- 
way, with his thoughtful head inclining towards his 



268 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

breast, though he did not recognize me, my heart 
smiled as if a benediction had passed by, and my in- 
voluntary feeling was, " Thank God for having created 
him." I remember his kindly face at my wedding, and 
then distance lay between us. The next time 1 saw 
him I was visiting New York. I entered the church, 
where through depths of silence, his voice fell upon 
my ear ; he was uttering the Lord's Prayer. Ah ! as 
I listened, I caught the very sound of that earnest sol- 
emn life I had pined to catch, that it might lift me up ; 
there was a history in the tones of his voice, and it 
repeated the poem of aspiration, combat, and victory, 
which rises from every regenerating nature. " Rejoice 
not against me, O mine enemy ! when I fall I shall 
arise." Tears fell involuntarily, as if a key had been 
fitted to some deep chamber within, and it had unlock- 
ed at the first touch. That the feeling of trust which 
took entire possession of me, was not a peculiar effect, 
I am certain, for I have known of many (whose ac- 
quaintance with him was as limited as mine was at 
that time) who went to him in moments of intolerable 
suffering and indecision, and poured out the story of 
life, praying for his counsel ; — he was so easily under- 
stood by those who " took a walk through his heart." 

The first time I had an intimate conversation with 
Prof. Bush was in 1856, many years after the first 
meeting with him. My sister and I went to Brooklyn, 
one lovely afternoon late in August, to call on Mrs. 
Bush, among other friends. " Stay," she said, taking 
hold of my sister's bonnet string, as we seated our- 
selves in the parlor, "the Professor will come down." 

We obeyed, and while we were removing our bon- 
nets, little George Bush, " a six-year-older," hurried into 
the room, and rushed up to his mother, exclaiming, 
" There's such a boy in our yard ; he's been striking 
me and striking me, and he says if I go in the street 
the constable will take me up, so I can't take my 
papa's letters to the post-office any more." 

" Didn't you do any thing to provoke the boy ? " asked 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 2G9 

his mother, with that maternal wisdom which comes 
by experience of boys. 

" Not a thing !" he answered energetically ; " I only 



own 



hit him just such a leetle bit with this I" bringing d 
a little willow switch with the last degree of moderation 
to his mother's knee. Here his father appeared, and 
George Bush, junior, went to the back parlor windows, 
to see if any thing could be discovered of the " terrible 
infant!" Prof. Bush never strove to display himself 
in conversation ; he was always too much in earnest 
for others — too good a listener, to commence a conver- 
sation about himself. One of his first questions as he 
sat down beside me was about the religious state of 
the distant community in which I lived. 

" Though you find no one near you who sympathizes 
with you in your religious position," he said, " I am 
glad that you join, in a measure, with another Christian 
denomination to advance the good Lord's kingdom ; 
the Church must be purged of illiberality and sectarian- 
ism before the reign of charity will commence. You 
correspond with M — ," he said animatedly, referring to 
a lady in whom we were deeply interested. " Did she 
ever tell you how singularly she was led by Providence 
to find a solution for her religious perplexities in the 
writings of Swedenborg ?" 

"No, sir; she only said she met a lady at a hotel 
who had ' Heaven and Hell ' in her hand." 

" Come up to my study," he said rising, " and I will 
read you some of her old letters, which trace out the 
action of her mind for a long period ; there is a fasci- 
nation about her writings to me. I have not heard from 
her in a long time." 

I delivered a friendly message which M — had com- 
missioned me with to the Professor, and then we all 
ascended to the third-story back room, which was the 
study ; books were piled up on shelves from floor to 
ceiling ; they were stacked on tables and under tables, 
on chairs and under chairs. The Professor hunted in 
his drawers, and finally discovered a package of letters 
23* 



270 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

tied with a string ; he read them, and we gathered 
around him and listened with that sense of enjoyment 
which young girls feel when herded together, to listen 
to a romance. After the reading was over, we talked 
about M — , her declining health, and joyful anticipa- 
tions of the beautiful life of the spiritual world. 

" I asked her if I might write a little sketch of her 
after she died ? " I said. 

" What did she say ? " he asked, laughing at the 
sort of frankness which subsisted between M — and 
myself. 

" She said I might if I wanted to, but she would try- 
in heaven to lift my thoughts up above earthly things 
to eternal relations. Do you think, Professor, now 
that we four are so earnestly talking and thinking 
about her, that it can have any influence in turning her 
thoughts towards us ? " 

" Whether it can make her ears burn, according to 
the common superstition ? " he said, smiling thought- 
fully. " If we were in the spiritual world, the interest 
we are sending out to her would bring her into our 
midst ; if she is alone, and her attention is not attracted 
by others, she is probably thinking of us, but while we 
are circumvested with a gross material body, we are 
rarely able to touch the absent with our thoughts, un- 
less there is extraordinary congeniality, and physical 
causes are favorable." 

For the benefit of the inquiring, I will say that M — 
afterwards wrote me that her ears did not burn at the 
proper time, being filled with an unearthly din made 
by carpenters and masons who were altering the house, 
and she was in a state of earthly perplexity generally. 

The Professor and his wife called our attention to 
several new books just issued from the press, which lay 
before us. " Why, Professor," asked sister, " do you 
read all these books that are sent you ? " 

" Oh, no ! " he replied, " Mary [alluding to his wife] 
reads the lighter works, and gives me her idea of them. 
I read a passage here and there sometimes." 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 271 

" The only work of fiction which the Professor ever 
read through" said Mrs. Bush, "was 'Jane Eyre,' and 
that he sat up all night to finish. Pie read that just 
before we were married! " she added, laughing, as if to 
explain the romantic indulgence which he had permit- 
ted to himself. 

That day I learned more of the genial, beautiful 
side of the Professor's character than one would have 
learned in years by holding intellectual disquisitions 
with him. In all respects, he exactly realized the im- 
pression I had received from him at the house of Mr. 
Barrett so long before ; it was as if I were only actu- 
ally walking through a scene, every particular of which 
I had previously received an inkling of in a dream. 
I was surprised to find that he had incidentally heard 
of something which I had very much at heart. He 
kindly asked me about it. I did not reply elaborately, 
lest it might seem as if I were anxious to enlist his in- 
fluence, and I felt as if I had no claim to press my per- 
sonal interests upon him. I think he half guessed what 
was in my thoughts, for when sister and I went to his 
wife's room to put on our things to go home, he came 
up from the parlor in a few minutes, and lightly tapped 
at the door ; he came to ask me about my plans, and 
to suggest one or two little things which might save 
me a few hours' time. He seemed solicitous gently 
to prepare me for discouragements. Said he, " Do not 
forget that worth and non-success are often coupled to- 
gether in this world, and that as frequently demerit and 
success walk hand in hand." His whole manner said 
more delicately than words could have done, " Follow 
out all your own designs, but if you are disappointed 
do not be afraid of my good-will in helping you ! " 

I went away, thinking I would not tax his time a 
moment for me, unless I was reduced to the last ex- 
tremity. In a few days, my main hope broke, and 
was lost ; I tried to balance myself on five or six little 
hopes in succession, but the timbers cracked and I went 
under. Nothing seemed left to me but the kind face 



272 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

of Prof. Bush, and without stopping an instant to let 
the waves of discouragement rise higher, I made a pil- 
grimage to his house. He was at dinner; dreading to 
meet strangers in the parlor, I ran up to his study, bid- 
ding the servant say I was waiting there. In a mo- 
ment Mrs. Bush came in to see me, and soon after the 
Professor followed. I was just tired enough to tell 
my story thoroughly, and to be desperately frank. I 
thought, " I shall meet the Professor in heaven, and 
what is the use of concealments? " He listened sym- 
pathizingly — was silent; then with the simple, brave 
candor of one whose benevolence would not suffer him 
even to do an apparent kindness, without learning first 
whether it could have a harmful drift, he said, yet how 
gently, " We sometimes, in trying to perform even a 
laudable work, find far back in our minds, a first cause 
which is rooted in selfishness. This moving cause 
would lead us to act, to persevere even against the will 
of Providence. Are ypu clear about this ? Have you 
looked all through your mind, and are you holding your 
will, like one who is waiting before Jehovah ? Out- 
ward conditions are of far less consequence than a 
right attitude towards our eternal state." 

I tried to answer him transparently ; then came his 
words and looks of kindest encouragement. He sug- 
gested the only plan of success which seemed to him 
feasible. " Send me what I mention," he said, " and 
I will write a letter for you, and say all I can." 

I did as he wished the next day ; a few days after 
he came with his wife to visit us, according to a pre- 
vious engagement ; they brought the two children to 
play with my sister's little ones. I learned then from 
his wife, that instead of writing a letter, he had been 
in person to advocate my interests, and had thus in- 
augurated the first element of success. The children 
played in the yard that afternoon ; occasionally, when 
their merriment became vociferous, the Professor would 
rise from his chair and walk through to the back parlor 
windows to inspect their performances ; he went out 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 273 

to the back door to see if the swing was secure, or if a 
fall could be detrimental. In the evening, the grown 
people sat in the front parlor, and the " small fry " sur- 
reptitiously gathered together four ottomans in the 
back parlor, turned them upside down, squeezed them- 
selves in one apiece, and in ecstasies of delight, set 
themselves about navigating their portion of the house, 
which proved to be the Atlantic Ocean. When the 
excitement reached the explosive pitch, the Professor 
would call George twice by his pet name, and say, 
" You are making altogether too much noise ! You 
must play more quietly ! " George, by the way, did 
not happen to be as boisterous as the others, not being 
so much accustomed to out-door sports. 

The last time I ever saw the Professor was in the 
month of September, 1858. It had ere this become as 
habitual in our family to say, " the dear Professor," 
as to call other gentlemen Mr. Smith or Mr. Jones. 
A half-dozen congenial friends were gathered at his 
house, having one of those little visits which are so 
charming from the absence of conventional restraints. 
The Professor was invisible before tea, being deeply 
engaged in his study. Mrs. Bush chatted in our midst, 
having on a large check apron over her neat dress, 
while she pared peaches for tea, the servant being en- 
gaged with the family ironing. Finally, we were all 
gathered at the cheerful tea-table, expecting every mo- 
ment that the Professor would make his appearance ; 
his wife sent for him a second time. He came walking 
hastily in, saying as he made his entrance, hardly yet 
extricated from a " brown study," " Why, my dear, 
why did you wait a moment for me ? You know I'm 
uncertain ! " 

He made his courteous salutatipns standing at his 
chair, then seated himself and reverently asked a bless- 
ing. When we adjourned tp the parlor, he brought 
forward a small machine, the principle of which had 
been knoww tp the ancients ; but it had only recently 
been rediscovered.. He showed us the action of this with 



274 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

enthusiasm. When after a while, I found myself seated 
beside him on the sofa, I could not forbear telling him 
how important had been the service which he had ren- 
dered me two years before ; I had not seen him since. 
He listened with the patient indulgence which char- 
acterized him when others were speaking, and then at- 
tributed the result to a cause which would have been 
no cause at all, if he had not made kindly use of it. 
" The hand of Providence was clearly marked in it 
from the beginning," he said, with his habitual refer- 
ence to a higher power ; then he added, laughing, and 
motioning significantly towards his eyes, " I shall never 
forget how you looked that day as you sat in my 
study." 

I questioned him about a theological matter in which 
he was interested ; he began to discuss it with ardent 
zeal. " What do you think of this view ? " he asked. 

" Professor," I said, " when I first read your ideas 
on this subject, it gave me a pain in my heart." 

" Ah!" he slowly and thoughtfully uttered ; then sub- 
joined, " Yes, it shocked your preconceived ideas." 

" Well, even now, Professor," I said somewhat tim- 
idly, " it seems best to me that there are so many who 
cannot accept your idea." 

" Undoubtedly ! undoubtedly ! " he responded with 
a tranquil heartiness. " The Lord can prepare the 
minds of men for new truth in his good time ; yet do 
you not see that I must enunciate my convictions ? 
I saw last month that you were verging towards my 
position ! " 

" But I haven't got to your position yet !" I answered, 
laughing. " I only begin to see that I did not appre- 
hend the whole bearing of your view. I only begin to 
have an inkling that a hundred years hence, it will be 
seen that your ideas did not retard the real good of 
Zion." I felt in his presence what I did not say, that 
he had been looking over our heads all the time. 

" This external machinery is giving way ! " he said, 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 275 

touching his breast. " I am failing ; I have been for 
a year ! " 

I could not believe his words would be realized be- 
fore I should see him again. Even now I find myself 
saying a thousand times, " Oh, if I could only talk with 
the dear Professor about this ! " How very often I find 
myself looking forward to the happy day when I shall 
talk with him again in heaven ! It almost seems as if 
the first greeting will be, " Is it not so, Professor ? Is 
it not in this beautiful world just as we thought ? " 

Sara A. Wentz. 



LETTER 

FROM MRS. ELIZA DICK 



New York, March 4, 1860. 

My clear Mrs. Bush : — The best way in which I can 
furnish a reminiscence of the Professor, is to send you 
a letter which I wrote to my sisters immediately after 
that day I spent at your house. I extract the follow- 
ing : — 

* * * * " Now, dear sisters, I will turn to the day 
■which I spent at Prof. Bush's. I wish I could transcribe the 
sweetness of it all ! how you would have enjoyed it ! As soon 
as Mrs. Bush found that it was I who was waiting to see her, 
she sent for me to come to her room. There sat the dear Pro- 
fessor in his arm-chair ; he looked so feeble and so changed, 
but he met me so warmly ; there we three remained all day 
alone, except when Mrs. B. left us to receive calls in the par- 
lor. The Professor had been suffering very intensely, having 
been without sleep day and night. Several times he was 
obliged to lie down and rest. The day before, he had an 
operation performed; his side had been opened, and a large 
quantity of corrupt matter had been removed; he hopes this 
will draw the disease from his lungs. He has had to toil very 
hard for his daily bread ; he has worked very steadily upon 
the Commentary on Numbers; this, with want of exercise in 
the open air, and his anxiety over his affairs, has had a disas- 
trous effect upon his health. He opened all his heart to me, 
relating how he was situated financially, and his mental expe- 
riences for the last few months. It seems as if such an able, 
righteous worker should have received an easy recompense, 
but not a shadow of reproach towards a human being fell from 
his lips. They are going to move from Brooklyn, having hired 



MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 277 

a cottage near Rochester ; and oh, you can't think how sad 
and touching was his tone, when he said, " We could not stay 
here ; I have not paid my interest in two years. I have made 
all a matter of prayer ; my earnest solicitude is to he just. 
One day, while all these things were pressing mountain-like 
upon me, I was riding in the stage, in a state of great hodily 
exhaustion ; suddenly these words came to me with overwhelm- 
ing force : ' My Word is a sure foundation.' I was completely 
overcome with a sense of the Lord's protecting care. I rested 
in His arms, and since then, so wonderfully, silently, and noise- 
lessly has the Lord opened out my path, that I have heen 
amazed." He says he never felt a more ardent desire to 
preach than now ; and if he regains his health, there is a fine 
opening at Rochester. " Ah," said he, " it is love which the 
world needs ; I trust I shall preach it more than ever, if my 
health is restored. So precious have the New Church truths 
been to me, I long to proclaim them to others." I think he 
feels as if his time is short, for he said his great wish was to 
get his earthly affairs in order, ere he took his departure. Mrs. 
Bush's heart seemed absorbed in the sweet life and pathos 
which the xpriet room seemed to hold ; he speaks so tenderly to 
her. They are coming to spend a day with us a week from 
to-morrow, if the Professor is able to ride so far ; so send your 
hearts along, dear sisters, to visit with us. 

I, too, opened my heart's experiences to them, detailing the 
trials and duties and hopes of my lot ; it was so consoling to 
pour out my soul to one who stood upon the brink of the beau- 
tiful kingdom. I felt as if he would soon see our mother in 
her heavenly home ; and oh ! I longed to send her a message of 
love ; but for his wife's sake, I refrained from any expression 
that would lead her to think I believed he must soon be trans- 
lated. It seemed as if our very hearts blended in Christian 
unison, though I felt like a little child sitting at the feet of 
wisdom. He seemed to me like one of God's holy angels, and 
thinking it might be the last time Ave should hold such sweet 
heart-intercourse, the hours seemed hallowed, and on their 
melting enthusiasm there seemed to fall the sunrise-tints of the 
sky to which he journeys. In the midst of his sufferings a 
mellowed love seemed to flow forth from him, towards every 
child of God. I felt so strengthened by the interview, I have 
since almost believed I shall meet all the sorrows of life, smil- 
ing on them, with uplifted heart that can trust the Father. 

24 



278 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

"When I was about leaving, the Professor was lying on the 
sofa. He looked so benignantly upon me and said, " Didn't 
the Lord send you here to-day ? " It has been a blessing to 
my inmost heart, and how grateful I felt for the hope that his 
suffering hours had been cheered by the interchange of thought 
and feeling. But, dear sisters, you know that my love and 
reverence for the Professor amount to enthusiasm, and I will 
pass on." ******** 
Faithfully yours, 

Eliza Dick. 



LETTER 

PROM MRS. ANNA CORA RITCHIE. 



Richmond, Virginia, May 23c?, 1860. 

My dear Mrs. Bush : — I have been apprised of the 
memorial of your honored husband which you con- 
template preparing, and learn that you would be glad 
to receive any personal recollections, in the shape of 
letters, from the friends who loved and valued him. 
Will you allow me to claim a place among that num- 
ber ? 

I made the acquaintance of Professor Bush in 1843. 
He was a constant and most welcome addition to our 
home circle. All of its members soon became warmly 
attached to him. He was not at that period a member 
of the Lord's New Church, but was zealously examin- 
ing the writings of Swedenborg. His faith in the old 
doctrines had been shaken; the revelations of science 
had sapped their foundation ; the tottering walls were 
crumbling around him, and he stood with head unshel- 
tered from the chilling winds of doubt, looking stead- 
fastly upward, to learn where he might find the rock 
of Truth upon which he could build a more lasting 
edifice. 

He had recently become acquainted with the phe- 
nomenon of Mesmerism, and was earnestly engaged 
in studying its wonders, and searching out its philoso- 
phy. Our household chanced to be equally interested 
in the discoveries of magnetism, and I think it was 
through this gate that he entered (as we did) into the 
" City of the New Jerusalem." 



280 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

I well remember some of his mental struggles after 
the light of the new dispensation began to shine in 
upon him, and to show how great was the darkness by 
which he had been surrounded. Long after Swedeo- 
borg's exposition of the Lord's first and second coming 
— of the atonement — of all that regards the future 
world, and the life in this world that leads to heaven 
had become clear to him, and after he had often assert- 
ed that these teachings were based upon sound reason 
and philosophy, that science herself was their hand- 
maiden and exponent, the doctrine of "correspondence" 
remained a stumbling-block. He had dwelt so long 
upon the literal sense only of the Scriptures, that lie 
could not grasp their spiritual and celestial meanings 
as set forth through this doctrine. I cannot remember 
how many months (it seems to me at least a year) he 
talked to us, day after day, of this difficulty ; but I can 
call to mind his satisfaction when he declared that he 
had found the key, and the inner sanctuary of the tem- 
ple was unclosed to him. 

When he publicly made known his spiritual advance, 
and consequent change of faith, he set aside all worldly 
considerations ; he literally parted with all that he had, 
and took up his cross to follow his Master. He had 
nothing temporal to gain, and much to lose. He met 
with unkindness, rebuke, and even ridicule from his 
brethren of the Old Church, and many harsh judg- 
ments were passed upon him. I have seen him writh- 
ing under the wounds unsparingly dealt, but never 
once heard him regret the path he had chosen, and in 
which he was steadfastly walking, though with bleed- 
ing feet. 

He lived with almost Spartan frugality, yet the 
" sharp pinch of penury " was familiar to him ; but he 
never murmured, and his allusions to his lack of abun- 
dance were often jocular, and always evinced content 
with the humble portion allotted him. 

He was a genial companion and very fluent speaker ; 
his conversation was delightfully animated, good-hu- 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 281 

mored even in controversy, and, in spite of his ex- 
traordinary erudition, free from all pedantry. He had 
a great love for the marvellous; but what inquiring 
mind, when it is lifted above material things and 
turned to supernal, has not ? Yet with all his fond- 
ness for the wonderful, he was not apt to yield ready 
credence to what he saw or heard without a close in- 
vestigation of facts. 

During the last few years of his life we seldom 
met, but our friendly relationship remained unaltered ; 
we corresponded from time to time, and I have pre- 
served some charming letters of his ; the last was writ- 
ten just before he removed to Rochester. 

His beautiful simplicity of character — his unflag- 
ging perseverance in the pursuit of truth — his soldier- 
like battling beneath her banner — his bold uprightness 
in proclaiming his convictions — his total disregard of 
worldly interests when they conflicted with higher ends 
— his unaffected humility — his ready sympathy — his 
tenderness towards the sick or sorrowing — his con- 
stant up-looking to the spiritual world to search out the 
causes which produce effects in this — his love for God 
and man, won not merely my affection and admiration, 
but my profound reverence, and will ever render his 
memory sacredly dear to 

Yours, with best wishes, 

Anna Cora Ritchie. 

Mrs. George Bush. 

24* 



LETTERS TO MRS. RITCHIE. 



New York, May 25, 1847. 

My dear Mrs. M. :* — If my epistolary archery could have 
skilled to reach you while on the wing, flitting from place to 
place, you would prohahly have been struck by means of a 
feathered missive many, many weeks ago. But, alas, I could 
not track your aerial circuits, and it is only that I have heard 
of your intention to perch a while at Cincinnati, that I take 
a rest and make a projection towards you. 

I should doubtless have done this at any rate, but the per- 
mitted reading of your letter to Mrs. Turner (who seems to 
be as happy as she has a right to be — among friends, you 
know) has quickened me not a little. So then you really had 
long chats with Henry Clay, and E. S. and G. B. were among 
the topics. Poor man ; how little thought he then of the dire 
tidings that were travelling towards him, and which would 
make so precious the truths that you could impart to him ! Oh, 
what pleasure would it have afforded your kind heart to have 
sat by him in his chamber of grief, and poured the balm of New 
Church consolation into his torn and bleeding heart ! Who 
knows but your consolation may have done him good as it was, 
and prepared him somewhat better to bear the brunt of his sor- 
rows ? If he shoidd visit the East this summer I shall be re- 
joiced to see him ; and the East you know is the famed quarter 
in the spiritual world. 

********* 

My own little brochure (" Mesmer and Swedenborg,") has just 
passed to a second edition, and seems to have quite a mission to 
perform. By letters from England I learn that it is beginning 
to attract attention there. The Bostonians,many of them, do not 
like it, as they say it mixes up the apocryphal with the certain, 

* Formerly Mrs. Mowatt. 



MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 283 

and the earthly with the heavenly, in a manner to be deplored. 
But I am unconvinced. 

********* 

On the whole, the prospects for the New Church are evi- 
dently brightening, and she is daily putting on her beautiful 
garments to the eye of the world. Clothed in the livery of 
love, she is winning growing favor with those who can assimi- 
late to her divine genius. This, I trust, you and I can do, 
though the illustration of her doctrines in life puts all our vir- 
tues to the test. How I long for the time when you can repose 
upon your laurels, and dwell in the congenial sphere of kindred 
souls ! 

Be careful and not urge me too hard to go with you to En- 
gland, or I may be induced to comply. My friends there are 
pressing for a visit, and one London gentleman has tendered 
me the hospitalities of his house as long I choose to stay. But 
such a coward of the sea ! Surely my faith must be as a grain 
of mustard seed. Yet I think I should feel safe with you. At 
any rate, it would be pleasanter to enter the spiritual world — 
if so it were to be — in such company. But, after all, I suspect 
my passage will be subterraneous instead of subaqueous. The 
Lord only knows. 

Please write me once at least from Cincinnati. My love 
does not shrink from asking so much of yours, and if Mr. M. 
adds a line, so much the better. 

Affectionately yours, 

Geo. Bush. 

New York, July 6, 1847. 

My dear Mrs. M. : — My eyes were pleasured yesterday by 
the receipt of your kind — very kind — letter from St. Louis. 
A thousand thanks, my dear sister spirit, for your remembrance 
of a poor garreteer, who is only so much nearer heaven, be- 
cause he cannot afford to tabernacle on terra firma — not be- 
cause he gravitates upwards by any special celesto-potency. That 
you should think of me from your terraqueous plain, is probably 
because I came into your field of vision in looking up. You 
see me because I am there. The fact, however, reconciles 
me more to the past, and I shall be disposed to retain my cyry 
so long as I can promise myself the pleasure of your optical 
visitations. 

The intimations that you have in various quarters, of the 



284 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

good results of my feeble labors, are doubtless somefbing of a 
cordial — dashed, however, with the consciousness of their pro- 
ceeding more from the knoicledge of truth than the love of good, 
though I trust there is at least a slight infusion of the latter 
principle in the impulsive elements that set me on work. But 
alas, I do assure you I am so much more a man of head than 
of heart, that I am ashamed of any thing in the shape of a 
compliment. But I am sure of loving my friends ; and if I cease 
to reckon you among the number, it will afford sad proof that 
discernment has gone the way of affection, and that there is not 
enough left of me whereon to hang a tattered shred of re- 
gard. But things have not come to this pass quite yet. 
****** 

"When you get to Boston do not fail to go to Mr. Clapp's 
and get Mr. Ford's " Guardian Spirits," with which you will be 
perfectly delighted. It is the most charming of all things out 
of the writings of the New Church, if indeed it is out of them. 
The facts are full of wonder, and the moral tone is admirable. 
It incessantly reminded me of you in reading it. * * 

Davis' Lectures are nearly printed. They are astonishing 
out of all measure, yet you will be startled by what he says of 
the Scriptures and of Christ, in which he is undoubtedly wrong. 
But the phenomena are amazing. He talks like the profoundest 
philosopher on subjects of which he is naturally altogether ig- 
norant. He gives a long account of Zoroaster's religion, and 
yet when I even asked him whether he had ever heard of Zo- 
roaster, he said he never had, and did not know but he was 
some relation of John Jacob Astor ! But I must close. 
Most heartily yours, 

George Bush. 

Eochester, N. Y., Oct. 14, 1847. 

My dear Friend: — I know not how to be grateful enough 
for your own and Mrs. M.'s kind interest in me and my move- 
ments, and for your proffer of continued friendship in a foreign 
land. Oh, how delightful to be there with you ! To mingle 
with you in the New Church circles, which would then be open 
to us. But, alas ! I dare not flatter myself with the prospect. 
I have no good grounds for the hope of ever crossing the 
Atlantic. There is perhaps no insuperable obstacle of an ex- 
ternal kind, but I cannot possibly muster confidence in myself. 
I am such a simpleton in society — my whole manners and 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 285 

habits are so utterly alien from the usages of the world — that 
I cannot venture among men. I must stick to my studio. I 
am a man of the pen, and not of the tongue. With all my 
cordial regard, therefore, for my English friends, and all my 
unfeigned love for you twain, I see not but I must forego the 
pleasure of a trip transatlantic. Give, however, my kindest 
regards to everybody, and tell them I am with them in spirit, if 
not in person. 

If I should write to you in England, I shall direct to the 
care of Mi-. Newbery. You will be apt to hear from me. 
Meanwhile a thousand blessings attend you. The Lord watch 
over you in the assaults of winds and waves. The Lord keep 
you in the peace of love and the assurance of truth, and bring 
you safe to the desired haven, whether above the waters or 
beneath them. 

Yours in sincerest esteem, 

George Bush. 



My dear Mrs. Ritchie: — Your long-tried and unfaltering 
friendship appeals strongly to my heart. The recent memento 
of your kindness, received a few days since, impresses me very 
gratefully, but I run back in memory to the very origin of our 
acquaintance, and you stand before me as ever the same — 
always courteous, urbane, indulgent of infirmities, studious of 
imparting happiness, and merging self in liberal benevolence. 
This testimony will not harm you, as you will know with what 
drawbacks it is to be qualified ; but these are unknown to me. 

The appeal bearing the signature of three of my choice friends 
has been not a little trying ;but the response made to it (about 
$600) shows that it is not ill entertained in the Church at large. 
From England I presume I may count upon about as much 
more. . 

My health has suffered so much within the last year or two, 
that I am almost broken down. The climate of Brooklyn is 
altogether too severe for me, and my physicians advise a re- 
moval from the sea-board to a residence inland. With this 
advice I have concluded to comply, and having let our house, I 
am now making arrangements to flit (as you know shadows 
flit, and I am but a shadow of myself) to one of the towns in 
Western New York, probably Syracuse or Rochester. I am in 
hopes the change will renovate me, as I propose an entire 
alteration in my habits of life. While I would not neglect to 



286 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

cultivate the angel, I shall feel no reserve in cultivating a little 
more of the animal. I expect to let loose my " forcible-feeble " 
energy on a few acres of land. 

I sympathize with you in the longing for a time of free inter- 
course, as I have a thousand things to talk about. But we 
must bide our time. I rejoice to know that your good husband 
is making progress in the truth. Give him my best regards, 
and accept for yourself the assurance of the best wishes and 
prayers of Yours ever, 

March 5, 1859. George Bush. 

My dear Mrs. Ritchie : — Perhaps you have heard of our 
troubles. In consequence of my having married a gentlemen 
to a lady (both of the New Church), the gentleman having 
obtained a divorce from a former wife, — now the hopeless in- 
mate of a lunatic asylum, — several of the leading families in 
my society have withdrawn and established worship in another 
place. 

The affair has been a most aggravating outrage upon the 
spirit of charity, of which the parties will probably one day be 
ashamed ; but such are the facts. They hold that there is no 
possible or conceivable ground of divorce but adultery ; and as 
this is not charged, I had no right to marry the parties, and 
fatally committed the New Church when I did so. The plea 
is supremely ridiculous, but it shows what narrow minds there 
are in the world. 

Very truly and fraternally, yours, 

George Bush. 



My dear Mrs. Ritchie: — I must certainly try to see you on 
your northward trip this summer. I want you, for once, to 
visit, if for only half an hour, my own domicil, and see for 
yourself how I live. I have two lovely little sprigs that have 
shot off from the parent bush, that will gladden your eyes to 
look upon. It is pleasant to gaze on such little buds of being 
before the celestial angels give way to the approaches of lower 
ones. 

Your kindly expressed hope that the clouds lately gathered 
around us may have somewhat broken away, yet remains to be 
realized. I have a strong circle of friends who rally round me 
and who would make great sacrifices rather than see me suf- 
fer ; but you know one does not like to pu>h good-naiure to its 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 287 

utmost limits ; so we worry along, hoping for better days in the 
issue. 

Our society affairs remain in statu quo. The elements, how- 
ever, which have eliminated themselves, were of such a nature 
that we are better off without them than with them. But 
only to think of the New Church — a Church of charity — split 
up into feuds ! — Alas ! alas ! 

Yours ever, 

George Busii. 



REMINISCENCE 



BY A LADY. 



Dorchester, Mass., Sep. 1, 1860. 

Mr. Fernald : — Dear Sir, — As you kindly re- 
quest me to record my reminiscences of Prof. Bush, I 
do so with the greatest pleasure to myself, but I fear 
with little gratification to others. I give a brief ac- 
count of an acquaintance so delightful and instruct- 
ing, that the period at which it transpired has always 
been remembered as one of the most charming episodes 
of my life. 

My acquaintance commenced with the Professor 
through a friend much interested then in the study 
of the science of Mesmerism, if such phenomena 
can be called a science. It was about fifteen years 
ago, in the city of Boston, during the period of his 
transition from the " Old Church " to the " New," as 
he calls it. Prof. Bush, after some conversation on 
the subject, expressed the belief that I had strong 
Mesmeric power, but was not impressible myself to 
that influence. The subject was very interesting to 
me, but I was entirely ignorant regarding it, and had 
seen nothing of its trials or effects. At this time, a 
young child of six years was visiting in the family, 
who had shown a singular degree of personal attach- 
ment to me, and Prof. Bush was quite anxious that I 
should try this wonderful power in her case. He had 
instructed me as to the formula of passes, etc., and one 
day when he was not present, I essayed a trial of this 



MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 289 

magic means. Very much to my surprise and fright, 
I found " Lucy " yielding to what seemed to me a 
supernatural influence, and she immediately became 
fast bound in the mesmeric state. The Professor had 
informed me how to produce this effect, but not how to 
guide its operations, or awake a subject from it. For- i 
tunately (for I was entirely ignorant then of the dan- 
gers of such operations), he had directed me to control 
all fear in my own mind, or it would injure my subject. 
And it certainly required considerable resolution in a 
young girl as I was then, to behold before her this cold 
and rigid little child, with pulses almost still — all the 
avenues of the senses locked fast — and excepting a 
gentle breathing, as entirely shut out from the world as 
if the grave had sheltered her. We knew not how to 
arouse her, and my own feeble strength was fast going, 
when fortunately the Professor came in. He was per- 
fectly delighted at the sight, not fearing any danger, 
and all who remember his natural, childlike expres- 
sions when pleased, can understand his joy at this cor- 
roboration of his favorite theory. Lucy proved to be 
clairvoyant in the highest degree. Her own will, and 
all her mental powers, were entirely merged in mine, 
and her senses answered only to what appealed to those 
of her mesmerizer. 

She was placed in a position where she could not 
possibly see me, and the Professor gave me disagree- 
able things to taste, which, without my speaking, she 
appeared to taste herself, and expressed her dislike of 
them. If I were touched, she would shrink as if from 
the same slight blow, and would obey my will instantly, 
while I kept perfect silence. The Professor wrote on 
a piece of paper for me to will her to go to the piano 
and play ; which I did, still keeping silent, and she 
arose, leaving us all, and walked with, her eyes tightly 
shut, to the end of the apartment, where she seated 
herself at the instrument "and played thrpugh one of 
her simple melpdies. In short, it was the most perfect 
proof pf this wonderful power which at that time Prof. 

"sis' 



290 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

Bush was engaged in investigating, and which he con- 
sidered as a subject to be studied by the side of the 
spiritual disclosures of Swedenborg. And it is, in itself 
alone, a sufficient refutation of those charges which 
have been brought against him by his more conserva- 
tive (?) brethren, of endangering the interests of the 
" New Church." For surely, the great Providence was 
thus leading and preparing him, as it has many others, 
by these means, for the complete triumph of a more 
glorious faith than anything which his ancient " Ortho- 
doxy " had to offer, and the enlightenment through him 
of thousands of others. Witness also his own beauti- 
ful confessions concerning this high-minded and inde- 
pendent course of inquiry. 

To an imaginative mind — to one who delighted 
to study the action of the soul, this " Transfer of 
Thought," to use one of his own expressions, has great 
fascination. It embodies so sure a proof of the action 
of the spirit apart from the material senses, and above 
all, indicates the exalted purity and quick sense of 
justice which is the very essence of the Divine soul 
breathed into man ere it is polluted by worldly tempta- 
tion, that it is highly valuable to all spiritual inquirers. 
For, although we are well aware that these abnormal 
ecstasies argue nothing for the regenerate state of the 
soul, and may be produced in subjects of the crudest 
and most natural states, and which seem, therefore, to 
be nothing more than the artificial stimulation of what 
good is already within them, by subduing the external 
parts, yet it is plain that such good is stimulated, or 
released from its bonds for the time being, by these 
abnormal processes. For in this state, the mind has a 
clearer perception of spiritual things, and seems to ob- 
serve a guardianship over the earthly habitation, so that, 
frequently, while no word of guile issues from its lips, 
no shadow or taint of evil can pass the portals of its 
senses.* 

* A passage or two from Swedenborg will best explain this : " Hu- 
man wisdom, which is natural so long as man lives in the world, cannot 



OP PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 291 

Prof. Bush thoroughly investigated those startling 
phenomena, and gave to the world in his interesting 
work, " Mesmer and Swedenborg," a full account of 
his experiences and his unavoidable conclusions. 

His own purity, simple-heartedness, and unswerving 
honesty of purpose — his absolute worship of the truth, 
made him akin to the spirit when thus almost severed 
from its earthiness; and it was like what we might 
imagine angelic intercourse to be, to see this noble 
man, whose whole life had been passed in spiritual 
conversations, thus directing and enjoying the most ex- 
alted states of the soul while still bound by its earthly 
fetters. E. P. 

possibly be exalted into angelic wisdom, but only into a certain image 
of it ;.. . . but still the man in whom the spiritual degree is open, comes 
into that wisdom when he dies, and may also come into it by laying asleep the 
sensations of the body, and by influx from above at the same time into tho 
spiritual principles of his'mind." D. L. W. 257. Here it is affirmed 
only, that the man in whom the spiritual degree is open may come into this 
wisdom by laying asleep tho sensations of the body. But there is a great 
difference between having the spiritual degree of the mind open, and 
having only the spiritual senses open. The first takes place only with 
regenerate persons, by a life of love, and obedience to the Lord's com- 
mandments ; the second may take place with any clairvoyant who ob- 
tains, artificially or otherwise, any degree of spiritual sight. And, by 
coming into angelic wisdom by the means aforementioned, is not meant 
merely to possess it in the interiors of the mind, but to be in it and to 
live in it permanently; for "a man may be elevated to it, and possess 
it while ho lives in the world; but still he does not come into it [at least, 
ordinarily speaking] till after death, when, if he becomes an angel, he 
speaks tilings ineffable and incomprehensible to the natural man." D. 
L. W. 239. 

Something very similar appears also in the following passage : "Even 
with the wicked, corporeal and worldly things may be laid asleep, and 
they arc then capable of being elevated into a sort of heavenly principle ; 
as is sometimes done with souls in the other life, particularly such as are 
recently arrived, who have an intense desire to see the glory of tho Lord 
because they had heard so much about heaven whilst they lived in the 
world. Those external things, with such, are then laid asleep, and they 
are thus raised into the first heaven, and enjoy their desire ; but they are 
not able to remain there long, corporeal and worldly things being, with 
them, only in a state of quiescence, not of removal." A. C. 2041. 

Thus it is with all similar states in the world, whether produced by 
mesmeric power or otherwise. It is only an artificial exaltation; it ar- 
gues nothing for the purity of the actual, but only of the potential charac- 
ter (which is indeed very encouraging) ; and may not abide the real life 
and trial of the soul. — Ed. 



COMMUNICATION 

FROM OTIS CLAPP, ESQ. 



My acquaintance with Prof. Bush commenced in 
1844 or '45. He had given a course of lectures on the 
" Resurrection," in Portland, and was told that some 
of his views were in accordance with those of Swe- 
denborg. He therefore called upon me and asked ques- 
tions. I presume I spent an hour in opening and 
explaining the subject. He left without my knowing 
him. He proved a good listener, and I do not recol- 
lect ever to have met a man whose first interview inter- 
ested me so much. In a few months he called again, 
when I learned his name. After that, as he passed 
through the city, he always called, and we had long 
conversations on the New Church doctrines. I was 
most happily interested to note the progress which he 
had made at each period of time as he called ; and 
when he finally announced his acceptance of them, it 
was a matter to me of unalloyed satisfaction. An ac- 
quaintance and friendship then commenced which con- 
tinued to the time of his death. 

In the year 1845 he came to Boston, and gave a 
•course of lectures on the Soul. Although the audi- 
ences were not large, they attracted considerable atten- 
tion among thoughtful minds interested in such sub- 
jects. The lectures were given in the hall in Phillips 
Place, and I well recollect them, as this was the first 
time I had ever heard him lecture. The well-known 
Father Taylor was present by invitation of a lady, and 
though he could not at first yield assent to his conciu- 



MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 293 

sions, he listened with an attitude of such absorbed at- 
tention as to attract notice; and afterwards remarked, 
that whether the utterances of the speaker were true 
or not, there was no doubt he spoke from the heart. 

The substance of these lectures was published in 
1845, in a book on " The Soul, viewed in its bearing 
on the doctrine of the Resurrection.*' It was while 
studying upon these questions that his mind became 
opened to the reception of the writings of Sweden- 
borg. 

In the winter of 1845 and '46 he came to Boston and 
delivered a course of popular lectures on the claims 
of Swedenborg, in the vestry of the New Jerusalem 
Church in Bowdoin Street. They attracted crowded 
audiences, and caused much inquiry, as was shown by 
a constant stream of calls for books, pamphlets, and 
tracts. This was the only course of popular lectures 
ever delivered on the subject in this city. They were 
afterwards repeated, in part, in the Bridgcwaters and 
other towns. About this time Mr. R. W. Emerson 
gave his lecture on " Swedenborg," which Prof. Bush 
took pains to hear, and at once wrote a Reply, while 
travelling and lecturing from place to place. It was 
delivered at the Odeon, in Boston, on the evening of 
Jan. 16, 1846, to a full and appreciating audience. 

In the year 1846 he prepared the work entitled 
" Mesmer and Swedenborg," a duodecimo volume of 
some three hundred pages, and it was published in 
the early part of 1847. About one-half the work is 
devoted to the phenomena of Mesmerism, such as 
Phantasy, Spheres, Memory, Magnetic Vision, Clair- 
voyance, Magnetic Hearing, Repugnance to Names, 
Truthfulness, etc. About one-third of this amount is 
made up of extracts from the writings of Swedenborg. 
The Appendix makes nearly the other half. Of this, 
forty-nine pages are devoted to the " Revelations of A. 
J. Davis; " and nearly one hundred pages to the Seeress 
of Prevorst. The publication of this work led to a 
good deal of discussion, considerable controversy, and 
25* 



294 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

some feeling, both in the New Church and out. A 
number of articles appeared in the N. Y. Observer and 
Tribune, on both sides of the question, which for abil- 
ity and sharpness have seldom been excelled. I well 
recollect the painful and almost fearful interest with 
which I read a long article headed " Prof. Bush and 
Davis' Bible." The Reply of Prof. B., in the Tribune, 
always struck me as one of the most pungent, forcible 
and successful that I ever read. There is an easy self- 
possession, an unbounded reliance upon truth, and a 
quiet vein of sarcasm that runs through the whole, 
which makes it extremely effective. 

Great fears existed also among some members of 
the New Church, with regard to the influence of this 
work in complicating the Church with the disorders of 
Mesmerism and other isms prevalent in the commu- 
nity. These differences were never entirely reconciled, 
and the effects have not yet been wholly removed. The 
fears, however, in this respect, do not seem to have 
been realized. It seems to be pretty well understood 
that there is no class in the community whose aversion 
to the disorders of Mesmerism or Spiritualism is greater 
than that of the Swedenborgians. Indeed, in many 
cases, the aversion does not seem to be confined to its 
disorders, but to the thing itself. The work had an ex- 
tensive sale, over nine hundred copies having been dis- 
posed of the first month. Some idea of its influence 
upon the minds of intelligent readers maybe gathered 
by extracts from a letter of the late Hon. Lucius Lyon, 
a former senator in Congress, from Michigan, written 
to Prof. Bush three years after its publication : — 

" If the course towards you is to be accounted for by consid- 
ering the aversion to every thing of the nature of Mesmerism, 
when viewed in any kind of relation to the developments of 
the New Church, they have not taken the trouble to inform 
themselves on this subject sufficiently to distinguish the use 
from the abuse of it. That when perverted, as it commonly is, 
it becomes magical, no New Churchman will deny ; but I feel 
assured that the Lord overrules even this perversion, so that 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 295 

the good more than counterbalances the evil growing out of it. 
In looking back on my own state of mind five years ago, I do 
not see how I could ever have been brought to receive and 
acknowledge the psychological truths given to the world by 
Swedenborg, but for the confirmation afforded by the phenom- 
ena of Mesmerism ; and of the fifty or sixty persons with whom 
I have been personally acquainted, in this and other States of 
the Union, who have, since that period, embraced the heavenly 
doctrines, there is not one who has not been more or less aided 
in the same way. I speak of facts within my own knowledge. 
What the experience of others may have taught them in refer- 
ence to this matter, I do not know." 

The following note from one of the most eminent 
divines in the city of New York, will show the esti- 
mate in which the Professor was held outside of his 
own denomination. 

My dear Prof. Bush : — Thank you for your extracts and 
your note. Pray hold me excused for all the negligence of 

the . I seldom write for it now-a-days, and have no 

time to read or review even the best books. My parochial 
charge devours me. How I wish I could see much of you, 
and leam what your patient and severe studies have taught 
you ! Your career is one of singular interest, and has always 
retained the firmest hold on my respect and affection. I doubt 
not your work in this generation will tell in unexpected ways 
on the future fortunes of humanity, and that your intellectual 
and moral integrity in a generation of time-servers will have 
an abundant reward from the only just Judge. 

Pray come and see me — I am always at home Wednesday 
evenings, and would be at any special hour, to see you. 

It is more meet I should call on you than you on me, except 
that I am rather more a fixture in local space. 

Yours, with many pleasant and grateful remembrances. 

New York, May, 1857. 

One feature in the character of Prof. Bush was his" 
fairness in controversy. lie would either state the 
positions of his opponents in their own language, or 
so state them as to reflect the true point in the case. 



296 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

Owing to this trait, nearly all those who had tried 
conclusions with him, continued to be warm personal 
friends. 

One of the ablest writers of the advent school re- 
marked to me that he regarded Prof. Bush as the fairest 
opponent they ever had. 

As tutor in Princeton College he is said by one of 
the trustees, to have been the most beloved by the 
students in his class of any tutor who ever served in 
that college. When he left, the students made him a 
present of a pair of gold spectacles — an article at that 
day not very common. He was strongly urged by the 
professors to remain, instead of going West, with a 
view of accepting a professorship. He received a large 
number of invitations to accept professorships, but he 
declined them on the ground that he could be more 
useful in writing, lecturing, and preaching. He left 
among his papers the following brief sketch : — 

First Society of the New Jerusalem in Brooklyn, N. T. — 
The present society of the receivers of the heavenly doctrines 
in Brooklyn, though highly respectable for members, is still 
required to recognize a day of small things as marking its com- 
mencement. It was in the summer of 1852, that our first 
meeting was held in the parlor of the house of Robert L. 
Smith, 24 Strong Place. There were ten or fifteen persons 
present. This meeting and those which followed originated in 
the proffer of Professor Bush, who then resided in New York, 
to attend from sabbath to sabbath with such receivers of the 
heavenly doctrines as were disposed to meet together for social 
worship, and to conduct the exercises for them as he might be 
able. Having some time before terminated his engagement with 
the New York Society, and his sabbaths being then unoccupied, 
he was desirous of performing some spiritual use for his breth- 
ren, and on that account volunteered his services in the way 
above mentioned. In so doing his view was not to engage 
among them as a pastor or minister in the ordinary acceptation 
of the term, but rather as a brother upon a par with all the 
rest, except so far as his gifts, qualifications, and promptings 
might enable him, if it were their choice, to act as a spiritual 
leader and teacher in their meetings. Having been tor a long 



OP PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 297 

time satisfied that the ordinaiy distinction between clergy and 
laity was unfounded, he was desirous of uniting with a little 
band, however small, whose sentiments were kindred to his own 
in regard to the true order of the church, and thus to reduce 
the theory to practice. 

Prompted by this consideration, he entered into the move- 
ment without any understanding or stipulation as to recom- 
pense, as he wished to preserve his freedom intact, and to do 
all that he did from the dictates of charity, and not of self- 
interest. 

His letters sometimes speak of being sadly inter- 
rupted " between editing, preaching, corresponding, 
and seeing company." Although not officially con- 
nected with any of the New Church associations, there 
was probably no person in the body who held so ex- 
tensive intercourse as he did with readers and receivers 
of the doctrines in all parts of the world. Almost 
every New Churchman who visited New York seemed 
to feel that his visit was incomplete without calling 
upon Prof. Bush. His correspondence was enormous. 
Some idea of its extent can be formed by the fact that 
eighteen volumes of letters received by him are pre- 
served, embracing the period between 1846 and 1858 in- 
clusive, and some of these volumes contain nearly five 
hundred letters. Among them are letters from nearly all 
the leading minds in the New Church in this country 
and of Europe. His correspondence was large with 
authors and members of the New Church in England. 
Many of these letters are of great length. If any 
student in New Church theology had a perplexing 
question to solve, he seemed to think that the Profes- 
sor was the one of all others most able and willing to 
throw light upon it. Hence the applications of this 
class were numerous. The kind and genial manner 
with which he received all such approaches, will ac- 
count for this condition of things. 

He was one of the clearest and squarest men in de- 
fining his positions, that I ever knew, both in conver- 
sation and in writing. In a letter written in 1849 he 



298 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

speaks of having, from conscientious motives, renounced 
every thing in the shape of salary for preaching. " It 
is not necessary," he adds, " that I should live, but it 
is necessary that I should be faithful to my convictions 
of truth." An acquaintance who had been intimate 
with him for thirty years, remarked to me that he had 
on three or four occasions nearly made himself a mar- 
rtyr to his CDiivictious. 

He once said to me that he withdrew from the Pres- .' 
bytery in Indiana because they claimed to exercise 
rights over conscience ; and he would not belong to 
a body which made any such claims. He never af- 
terwards reconnected himself with any ecclesiastical 
body. I often expressed to him a wish that he would 
join the Convention ; but he always declined, feeling 
that his field of use lay in another direction. His re- 
lations, however, were very friendly with nearly all its 
members, and he took a lively interest" in its acts, 
though his criticisms on some of the proceedings were, 
it must be confessed, a little sharp. In one of his last 
letters, written when he was quite feeble, he says, " I 
am anxious to hear the result of the Convention. 
While I am writing [June 11, '49], I suppose they are 
in full blast of discussion on their last business day. 
I take it for granted you are there," and asks for a 
sketch of the proceedings to be sent him. 

On the 22d June, 1859, he wrote a friend in Brook- 
lyn, thus : — 

" Rochester, June 22, 1859. 

****** 

" Oh, how happy should I have been to be with you in your 
worship last sabbath ! But we were not without a substitute. » 
I have established worship in my parlor, and though generally 
so weak that I can scarcely kneel and rise again, and my voice 
dwindled nearly to a whisper, yet I have borne testimony to 
tbe Lord in the presence of my own family and some valued 
neighbors who esteem it a privilege to meet with us. This 
service we hope to keep up. 

" From all quarters I have a confirmation of what you say 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 299 

of the Convention. I have no doubt I should have enjoyed 
the intercourse most intensely. 

" The fact is, I have felt lately so much of the working of 
Christian love, and the idea of conjunction with all good spirits 
is so inexpressibly sweet to me, that I was led several times 
during the session to pour out my heart in prayer for the dear 
brethren assembled, that harmony and charity might prevail, 
and I hope not wholly without effect. * * * 

Ever yours, 

George Bush." 

This letter was published in the Messenger, not long 
after his death, and led to a current rumor that he had 
changed the views which he had put forth upon the 
ministry, and in relation to the Convention. This, 
however, was a mistake. Subsequent to this letter, 
and only a few weeks before his death, he had occa- 
sion to pass these in review with a friend, when he 
took occasion to reiterate them in the most undoubt- 
ing form ; and not a shadow of doubt ever escaped his 
lips on this point to the time of his death. The yearn- 
ing of " Christian love, and the idea of conjunction 
with all good spirits" had been active for a long 
period. The year previous he had proposed, and 
partly arranged, to be at the picnic in Abington grove, 
as a sort of surprise, with this end in view, but the in- 
convenience of leaving home prevented. 

I was stopping at his house in May, 1858, when he 
opened his mind very freely about his plans and wishes 
for the future. He had, as he said, what in the com- 
mon course of events might be some ten years of 
active life yet to spend. If he could follow his own 
inclinations, he would like to devote this to the cause 
of the New Church. He had thought of a work on 
the " Exposition of the Gospels," taking Clowes' work 
as the basis, and he would furnish exegetical and ex- 
planatory remarks. 

His health had begun to be impaired, which led him 



300 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

he could preach a portion of the time, and devote the 
remainder to writing. 

The idea of an Exposition, of the kind proposed, 
struck me as a work adapted to the wants of 1 he 
Church, and as calculated to aid in inaugurating a now 
state in the Church, by opening the interiors of the 
Word. I at once told him that this was an idea which 
should not be lost sight of, but be well considered. This 
led to a correspondence in which the matter was most 
freely discussed, in all its phases. On the 22d of June, 
he wrote, " Our project has taken strong hold of my 
mind, and I have been to-day deliberating upon the 
best plan to adopt." With this came a plan, nearly 
the same as that finally adopted. I find that my file 
contains over fifty letters from him in relation to this 
work, from one to eight pages each. Probably no work 
in which he was ever engaged so completely took pos- 
session of his head and heart as this one. 

On the ninth of July he says, " I have begun the 
writing business in earnest," and on the tenth he sent 
the first instalment of copy. 

As the work progressed, it so opened and increased 
upon him that he feared making it too large. " I think," 
he says, " I had better finish out one No., according to 
my ideal plan. ... I can make a vastly superior work 
by feeling at my ease, and free from the dread of being 
hampered." 

His idea at one time was to bring out one No. a 
month, but he soon found that the time and labor re- 
quired made this impracticable. He finally concluded 
to elaborate very fully some of the most important 
subjects, such as the " Sermon on the Mount," and the 
" Lord's Prayer," and curtail on other parts. Out of 
one hundred and ninty-two pages, one hundred and 
twenty-three are devoted to the exposition of these 
two subjects. The Sermon on the Mount, he says, 
" requires a great deal of exposition, and of careful 
consideration, which makes slow writing." 



OF PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 301 

On one occasion there was a loss of copy through 
the mail, which he spoke of " as rather trying to one's 
philosophy." The next letter speaks of the loss as an 
advantage. " Sprang to, and by tea-time had two or 
three times as much more." 

The typographical appearance of the work gave him 
great satisfaction. His letter ran thus : — 

" First rate ! "What more could be desired ? The exterior 
surpasses entirely my original expectations." Of No. 2 he 
says, it " looks finely. Praise enough to say it is equal to No. 
1, and contents more' interesting. I am still on the Lord's 
Prayer. If I had the illumination of Gabriel, I should write 
just such an Exposition as I am now giving to the church, for 

their states are not prepared for any thing higher. Says 

my fulness is the charm of the work." 

This work was written under the pressure of bad 
health and pecuniary trials. When on No. 3, he says, 
" my health is wretched," and " I am obliged to turn 
aside and write, to keep things going from day to day." 

He used to write biblical and literary articles for the 
daily papers and periodicals ; also articles for the new 
Encyclopedia, etc., etc., as a means of support. The 
Exposition of the Lord's Prayer, he said, "is very 
thoroughly elaborated," " but requiring much labor and 
patience* to prepare it." A few extracts from his letters 
will serve to show his views and feelings as he ap- 
proached towards his last days upon earth. 

January 26, 1859. — " No. 3 looks well. I think it will be 
found one of the most attractive Nos. * * * And now for 
the balance. I almost tremble to think of what I have to do 
with my vastly impaired ability, to work under such a load of 
responsibility as rests upon me. When I think of what you 
have involved in it, and how important is punctuality, my heart 
sinks within me. However, I must do the best I can." 

March 7, 1859. — "It is greatly to my regret that I have 
been prevented from going on with the Exposition at the rate 
26 



302 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

originally proposed. But ray health has heen so miserable 
that I have done next to nothing since you were here. I took 
a sad cold at the dedication, and have been much on my back 
ever since. And now the time draws so near for breaking up, 
that I do not see how it will be possible to complete No. 4 
before I remove [to Rochester]." 

April 2, 1859. — " You have probably heard, ere this, how 
exceedingly miserable I have been for weeks, and even to this 
hour. I am next to nobody. I have been obliged to give up 
both preaching and writing, and for several weeks have been 
for the most of the time on my back. 

" The delay of the Exposition has been a great grief and 
burden. . . . But then it is the Lord who has ' weakened my 
strength in the way,' and his Providence rules over all. I 
have a strong assurance that hv will yet enable me to accom- 
plish the work in hand." 

May 14, 1859. — "I am at last settled down in my new 
home, which is a kind of little earthly paradise, and where 
nothing is wanting to be enjoyed on my part but health. But 
here, alas, continues the great defect ! My hopes have thus 
far been disappointed in the effects of the removal. My aston- 
ishing weakness and prostration still abide with me, and I am 
afraid the prospect is poor of my ever being much better. 
One of our best physicians here, after an examination, says 
that owing to some difficulty in the action of the heart, the 
venous blood is very imperfectly oxygenated, and hence the 
weakness. I am inclined to think he is correct. 

" At present I am incapacitated for mental or physical labor, 
and am obliged to be much on my back. But I have a sort of 
presentiment that I will yet be able to work again feebly and 
moderately on the Exposition, so as at least to complete No. 4. 
I dare not be sanguine. The Lord has ' weakened my strength 
in the way,' and I am but a mere wreck of what I was." 

"Ju?ie 11, 1859. 

"Dear Friend Clapp : — You have no doubt been informed 
ere this that I was not well enough to resume my expository 
labors. I was in hopes to have done something by this time ; 
but the fact is, I have been growing worse instead of better. 
The doctors are quite decided as to a disease of the heart 
which is incurable, and connected with this is an incredible 
weakness of the muscular system, so that for my life I can only 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 303 

walk a few rods at a time, and that like an old man of ninety. 
Just at this moment I am considerably better, but how long it 
will last remains to be seen. As soon as I can possibly go 
to work I shall, but I am sorry to find the prospect so dis- 
couraging. 

" I am troubled with almost constant fever, which the doctors 
say is probably owing to the laborious action of some organ, 
but they cannot say precisely what." 

July 16, 1859. — This is supposed to be the last let- 
ter, or last but one, he ever wrote. 

" I fear I must give it up in despair. I have looked and 
longed for the day when I could resume the ' Exposition.' But 
it recedes further and further. I am growing weaker and 
weaker every day, and can now scarcely walk twice across the 
floor without being exhausted. I have a strong impression 
that I am near the end of my race. What will you do? 
Please write me. 

Yours &c, 

George Bush." 



Thus, for the last six months of his life, he seemed 
to be gliding in a calm, quiet, and serene state to his 
final end. He spent much time in reading the Word, 
Thomas A Kempis, and in prayer. 

He never took up any study after he arrived at 
Rochester, and all of his reading was either in the 
Word, or devotional works. 

His studies for the preparation of the Exposition 
had a most calm and soothing effect upon his thoughts 
and feelings. He used to remark that if his health was 
again restored, he should address himself more to the 
affections, should dwell more on love and charity, and 
to opening the internal sense of the Word. 



TESTIMONY 

CONCERNING THE EARLY MINISTRY, ETC., OF PROF. BUSH. 



Prop. Bush came to Indianapolis, Indiana, where I 
then resided, about the year 1824, where he was locat- 
ed as a minister some three or four years. At that time, 
and at that place, he was a staunch and very zealous 
Presbyterian, and much beloved by his little society, 
the neighborhood, and by all who knew him. He fre- 
quently was called on to address the legislative body 
that met at that place, the members of which requested 
the publication of his addresses, which were aU con- 
sidered of the highest order, but rather too learned for 
some of the buckeye members, who rather " guessed 
that fellow had rubbed himself against a college," etc. 
I recollect that one of his discourses was based on the 
words : " Where there is no vision the people perish." 
This discourse was considered very able, and just to 
the point. There may be still a copy of it remaining 
among his papers. And I believe some other discourses 
of a similar kind were published. 

In his Sunday sermons he quite often introduced and 
advocated some of the darkest old-fashioned Calvinism. 
On one occasion he told his audience bluntly that they 
often appeared ashamed of their doctrines ; but the 
time had come, he said, w T hen they should come out 
boldly and acknowledge their principles, which were 
that all tilings were foreordained and predestinated 
from the foundation of the world, whether for weal 
or for woe, and that God was as much glorified by 
the damnation of the impenitent, as He was in the 



MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 305 

salvation of the righteous, etc. This discourse so ex- 
cited and exasperated one of my own brothers, that he 
remarked after the sermon, that it was the most dam- 
nable doctrine that the dragon ever belched forth ; and 
that if a college could not produce any better preach- 
ing than that, they should all be burnt down, etc. But 
he also added, that he thought that Bush would some 
day learn a better doctrine out of college. 

At another time I heard Prof. Bush preach a funeral 
sermon over the grave of a Mr. John Connor, who had 
been a prominent member of the Indiana Legislature, 
in a similar tone, which certainly could not have afford- 
ed much consolation to the weeping friends, who stood 
around the little grave-yard in the woods, closely listen- 
ing with astonished admiration and wonder at the learn- 
ed destiny that awaited the departed. But still, all was 
generally well received, because they thought he was so 
learned that he knew all about the destiny of the world. 

These little items I mention that you may know 
some of the formerly propagated sentiments of your 
learned subject ; but it can be of but little public inter- 
est, except to show how even the learned may progress 
from darkness into light, and how mistaken they may 
be when only lighted up by the false glare of a college. 
And yet, even at that time, Prof. Bush, in his better 
discourses, appeared, at times, to have an interior view 
of truths that militated directly against the dark Cal- 
vinism he sometimes propagated. 

Many years after this, when he was in New York, I 
often visited him at his study, when our conversations 
frequently turned on the subject of the New Church 
doctrines, which he at these times did not profess to be 
much interested in, but still would occasionally make 
inquiries respecting Swedenborg and his writings; and 
I think I was one among the first persons that called 
his attention to them. And I found in my later visits 
that he appeared to be more and more interested with 
Swedenborg's writings, and also with myself. These 
interviews of ours were not very frequent, but appeared 
2G* 



306 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

to grow more and more agreeable to both of us, during 
each interview in New York, and all subsequent ones 
since. He was naturally a very warm-hearted, social, 
but diffident man — remarkably so for a man of his 
learning and experience. I often tried to call him out 
in conversation, but for some reason or other he always 
seemed to insist on my doing the talking. He once 
remarked to me, that he thought Swedenborg was a 
very learned, but also a very cunning man ; to which I 
replied that I thought so to, but still I thought he was 
also an honest man. (And this I still think !) 

S. 



LETTER 

FROM MR. JOHN THOMAS 



Syracuse, March 5, 1860. 

To Mrs. George Bush : — I am glad that an able 
mind is collecting reminiscences of Prof. Bush. When 
a great and good man is taken away, the ardent desire 
of sympathizing hearts is to gather up his life, illus- 
trated by his words and deeds and uses, to serve as a 
monument to his memory and a lesson to humanity. 

It is my humble opinion, that no man has done 
more to mould the hearts and minds of his country- 
men into heavenly forms, and direct them to a golden 
age, than Prof. Bush. On the external of society, men 
have made brilliant displays for fame and emolument. 
Such have been paid down for their labors ; but the 
heaven-gifted genius of your husband aimed intensely 
at the good of others, as the fruit of a celestial phi- 
losophy from seed which he labored incessantly and 
intensely to prepare the minds of men to receive, but 
which he expected to ripen only after his body was 
laid in its grave. 

The last time I saw your husband was last Spring, 
when you were with him, at the house of Hon. Lyman 
Stevens in this city: you were on your way to the last 
scene at Rochester. A few weeks before that, we joy- 
fully expected him to live with us in Syracuse, and be 
our leader and teacher of heavenly things. But the 
angel had manifestly begun in him the process of resur- 



308 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

reel ion, and his failing frame and pallid face gave sol- 
emn warning that his spirit was leaving its sepulchre 

— that his agency on earth was hastening to a close 

— and that he was to wait, not in Syracuse, but in 
Rochester, the end of his labors in the natural world. 

Your husband had many and warm friends in Syra- 
cuse, who had been led into the heavenly philosophy 
by reflections from his great mind ; and by mutual ar-. 
rangement, while on his way to Rochester, he stopped 
over night with us, that we might see his face once 
more, and indulge the luxury of a mutual love in the 
aura of his sublime spirit. He was not sure his dis- 
ease was then incurable, though it was unaffected by 
the wisest remedies. 

I can never forget how he spoke of death. " I am 
admonished," said he, " that disease may soon sepa- 
rate my spirit from my body ;" and raising his massive 
forehead with a smile of unearthly sweetness, he con- 
tinued, " I dare not let my mind dwell upon the event, 
lest the attractions of the inner world unfit me for the 
duties that remain." His only desire to live was to 
complete his plans of usefulness in opening the truths 
of the New Church, which seemed precious and glo- 
rious in proportion to the decay of his natural life. 

In private conversation with Mr. Stevens, he spoke 
most familiarly of his spiritual state. To him [Mr. 
S.], he seemed like an angel spirit, quitting himself 
of his natural body to enter heaven. His body was 
very feeble, and talking about it, he said, " When I am 
walking, it seems as if the angels waited upon me and 
placed my feet properly ; and when I go to bed at 
night, it seems as though I felt them distinctly and 
sensibly setting the bed-clothes right, and placing my 
head comfortably on my pillow." The truths of the 
Word, as they had been unfolded by Swedenborg, and 
as he had cherished, and taught, and lived them, were 
now of unspeakable value, and seemed to light up his 
soul with the divine glory. 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 309 

It was a sad, instructive, and thrilling interview we 
had with him on that occasion, — sad, because we 
feared it might be the last ; and thrilling and instructive, 
because of the truths of wisdom which seemed to flow 
from the angelic innocence which was the life of his 
mighty mind. 



REMINISCENCES. 



The demise of Professor George Bush has not only- 
left a vacant seat in the New Church, but a wide vac- 
uum in its literary department. It seems as though 
one of the principal pillars of the fabric had fallen, and 
to human vision he has been removed in the meridian 
of his usefulness ; yet we are constrained to confess 
that the Lord doeth all things well. Blessed be his 
name forever and ever. 

The circumstances which induced Professor Bush 
to remove to Rochester were adventitious, and to his 
mind providential, as will be seen by the following 
letter from him : — 

Brooklyn, March 22, 1859. 

Mr. Reynolds. — My dear Sir: — You have probably heard 
by this time that I contemplate a removal to Rochester. It is 
even so ; and it seems like a dream. One month ago I should 
as soon have thought of moving to Nova Scotia. But the 
Lord's providence has ordered things in a wonderful manner. 
It seems as if somebody has been praying that a New Church 
minister might be sent to your place. 

I bad indeed thought of going to Syracuse this spring, but 
my health has been so poor that I have felt constrained to give 
it up. In these circumstances, having relinquished my resi- 
dence in Brooklyn, I met accidentally, i.e., providentially, with 
my cousin, Capt. Harding, who told me his cottage at Koches- 
ter was to let, and that he would be glad if I would take it. 
As I was obliged to go somewhere, and had given up Syracuse, 
the idea struck me favorably, and I concluded to have my wife 
go out and examine the premises, which she did a week or two 
since. The result is, we have concluded to take the place. 



MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 311 

My main motive is the restoration of my health, which has 
suffered greatly from the climate of the sea-board. A change 
will probably build me up, as the doctors say there is no seri- 
ous organic disease. My principal difficulty is in the lungs, 
which I think will be benefited by an inland residence. My 
purpose is to come to Rochester simply as a private citizen, 
who would live in a very quiet way, on very small means, hav- 
ing in view, in the first instance, the recovery of my health. At 
the same time I have thought the Lord might design an open- 
ing for New Church truth in your place, and that that was the 
grand end of my being conducted thither. 

If I learn from you or others, that there is such a prospect, 
I shall be ready, as soon as health will admit, to occupy a Lec- 
ture Room, or any place that may be provided, and in a quiet 
and noiseless way, proclaim the precious doctrines of the New 
Jerusalem. The compensation I will leave to the free will of 
the people. 

If my health will serve, I might perhaps preach alternately 
at Rochester and Syracuse, and between both realize a little 
fund to help me pay my way. But however this may be, the 
Lord has laid constraining bonds upon me to preach his truth 
wherever a door is opened. 

I have, you see, spoken very freely, and laid open my plan. 
I should be very glad of a few lines from you, stating what you 
think of the prospect. Are there receivers enough in Roches- 
ter to form the nucleus of a little society ? Would they favor 
the idea of my labors among them as the Lord's missionary ? 
for man has had nothing to do with it. I suppose Mr. Jervis 
is yet with you and as interested as ever ; give him my re- 
spects. Probably there are others whom I do not know. An 
early reply will greatly oblige your friend and brother, 

Geo. Bush. 



In contributing to the proposed memoirs of Profes- 
sor Bush, I have thought that a transcript of his letter 
to me previous to his removal to Rochester would dis- 
close more of his real evangelical character than all the 
reminiscences which I could furnish. His faith, his hu- 
mility, his reliance on Divine Providence, his readiness 
to discharge duty, his willingness to labor for the good 
of others, without compensation, or for such as the 



312 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

" free will of the people " was disposed to bestow ; — all 
these shine conspicuous as vivid traits of his Christian 
character, and are obvious to the mental eye. During 
all my correspondence with Professor Bush, he has man- 
ifested, in every particular, so far as I could discover, 
a uniform, conscientious spirit of rectitude, meekness, 
and true holiness. And I have his authority for affirm- 
ing, that the day previous to his death, his confidence 
in the doctrines of the New Church remained unshaken 
and confiding. Not a lingering doubt appeared to dis- 
turb his tranquil and placid mind. 

********* 

The gentleness of his spirit gave a rare charm to his 
life and conversation, which could not fail to impress 
every one with that soft and lovely influence that sur- 
rounded him as an atmosphere. His spirit so modu- 
lated the tones of his voice as to reach the heart, and 
win the affections of all who heard him. Without 
affectation of sanctity, there was always manifested a 
Christian sincerity which commanded the profound re- 
spect and admiration of all those who held intercourse 

with him. 

********* 

Although his labors of love here have ceased, he will 
find a free and more extended field of operation in 
which to expand and augment his usefulness in the 
spiritual world. 



LETTER 

FROM S. HUNT 



Brooklyn, March 1, 18G0. 

Dear Mrs. Bush: — You inform me that some of our friends 
in Boston intend to publish a more extended notice of the 
Professor's life and labors, than has hitherto appeared. I am 
glad to hear it, and shall want to get a copy of it as soon as it 
is out. 

You know too well, Mrs. Bush, how much I loved and re- 
vered your dear, departed husband. I think of him almost 
every day, not as the profound scholar, and eloquent orator 
and preacher that I have so often listened to with so much 
pleasure and profit, during the five years that he was the pas- 
tor of our society in the city of New York, but I think of him 
as the Christian — the humble, earnest, and devoted Christian. 
How nobly he fought the good fight, and how triumphantly he 
finished his course ! And few, very few, I think, of our race, 
have been better prepared to enter the mansions of eternal rest 
than he was at the time of his departure. I cherish for him 
something far more sacred and enduring than respect for his 
learning, his varied attainments and eminent ability, for he was 
a man that I could love ; so humble, so approachable, and so 
full of the milk of human kindness. Those who think other- 
wise of him know nothing of his true character. The Lord, I 
humbly trust, will fully vindicate him from the hard things 
that some have imagined without cause against him. I had a 
delightful conversation with him the last time that you and he 
visited at our house at Greenpqint, He spoke very freely, 
more freely than he ever had, before, of his own experience ; 
and it was a great satisfaction to me, to learn from his own 
lips, how well prepared he was for an exchange of worlds. 
27 ' 



STATEMENT 

OF MRS. JANE GOUDY (A LADY AGED SEVENTY), 

Now a resident of Le Claire, Iowa, of her acquaintance with the late 
Rev. George Bush. 



Le Claire, Iowa, June 30, 1860. 

When we came to Indianapolis, Ind., in October, 
1826, Rev. George Bush was then pastor of the Presby- 
terian Church of that place. All the church members 
and every one else were pleased with him. He was con- 
sidered a man of talent — a good preacher — engaging 
all his time in care for his Church, and in doing good 
in every way he could. His Church appeared prosper- 
ous, and had a large sabbath-school connected with it. 

In the spring of 1829, Mr. B. visited the East, taking 
Mrs. B. with him, to visit her father's, Dr. Condit, of 
Morristown, New Jersey. They returned to Indiana in 
September; and soon afterward, I think about the 5th 
of October, Mrs. B. died, leaving an infant son a few 
• 'days old. There was a great deal of sympathy felt for 
| Mr. B. in his domestic affliction. 

All appeared pleased with Mr. Bush, and pleased 
with his preaching. The first thing known to the con- 
trary was a notice given for a church meeting, to as- 
certain if they would keep him for their pastor, as he 
was not a Presbyterian. There was a majority in fa- 
vor of retaining him. I do not know on what point 
the church elders and Mr. P, disagreed — I think on' 
Church government. The elders, in order to get his 



MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 315 

views, wrote letters to him, and his answers were used 
to prove him not Presbyterian. When the Presbytery- 
met, they dissolved the relation between Mr. B. and his 
church, though there was a remonstrance presented, 
signed by a respectable number of his church members ; 
and Mr. B. himself contended that he was Presby- 
terian. He remained at Indianapolis a year or more 
after that, preaching for the State Legislature when in 
session, and often going into the country preaching to 
the destitute. He did not harbor any spite toward the 
church elders or any one else opposed to him ; he at- 
tended their weekly church prayer-meetings, though not 
invited to take a part in them. Mr. B. was one of the 
most humble Christians I ever knew. His good influ- 
ence and counsels were of much use to my sons ; he 
baptized two of them, calling one for himself. Mr. B. 
was pleased with the West, but went on to New York 
to have his writings published. He sent my family, 
from New York, several of his books and a number of 
letters — one or two only are preserved. The last time 
Mr. B. preached in Indianapolis, he preached from the 
text, " Say ye to the righteous, it shall be well with 
him." His sermon was the means of the conversion 
of a Mr. H. — a man of good standing there. Mr. H. 
rode out a few miles with Mr. B. on the next morning, 
when Mr. B. was leaving Indiana, gave him five dollars, 
told him from that time he should lead a Christian life, 
and so he has. 

Mr. B. had many warm friends among the great men 
of that state, and that he was a great and a good man 
none will deny. 

Another reason why Mr. B. left Indiana, was, he did 
not wish to divide the Presbyterian Church ; but that 
church was never united again. It is virtually two 
churches to this day ! 



LINES 

SUGGESTED BY THE DEATH OF PROFESSOR GEORGE BUSH. 



Servant of God, well clone! That parting lay, 
From kindred hearts, repeats thy own farewell ; 
Cherubic heralds summon thee away 
To realms where joy and peace forever dwell. 

Earth's triumphs were not thine ; — nor worldly praise, 
Nor sword, nor sceptre, marshalled forth thy fame; 

Departed saints alone presumed to raise 
Meet anthems to thy consecrated name. 

Thou-wert no seeming patriot to command 
The extorted homage of the weak and blind ; 

No base betrayer of thy native land, 
Nor gilded tyrant, born to scourge mankind. 

Thy trophies were not gleaned on martial plains, 
Where Carnage, rolled in blood, delights to tread; 

Thy conquests were not crimsoned with the stains 
That wrap in gore the dying and the dead. 

Thine was a nobler greatness — ever thine 

The work that Heaven assigned thee from thy youth — 

To guard the torch at Reason's sacred shrine, 
And be th.' unshriuking champion of Truth. 

Constant to love, to counsel, and console 
A bigot age, though scarce escaped its hate ! 

Twas this that spoke the grandeur of thy soul, 
This, this it was that made thee truly great. 

Servant of God, well done ! Sweet be thy rest ! 

Though here derided, thy truth-piercing mind, 
Ages to come, more just, will be confessed, 

Thou friend and benefactor of mankind ! 

A. J. C. 



LETTERS MISCELLANEOUS 

TO PKOF. BUSH. 



[From the immense number of letters preserved by 
our friend — nineteen large volumes — we have se- 
lected the following as a specimen of the most interest- 
ing and characteristic. It is not consistent with the 
objects of this volume to burden it with such a corre- 
spondence : letters to the professor, unless pertaining to 
some special interest concerning him or his works, not 
otherwise mentioned, are not generally of sufficient im- 
portance to publish. Letters from the professor we 
could wish that we had more of. The following are 
selected with an impartial hand, and with particular 
reference to the suppression of any personal or im- 
proper matter, and will serve to show the nature of the 
various subjects on which he was addressed, and the 
estimation in which he and his labors were held by 
his correspondents. 

Since writing the above, we have come into posses- 
sion of the following nine letters from the Hon. Rufus 
Choate. These being an exception to the rest, on ac- 
count of the writer's great fame and genius, and his old 
intimacy with Prof. Bush, though net generally relat- 
ing to subjects connected with the New Church, are 
inserted in full. They will be read with interest from 
their distinguished source, if for no other reason. We 
would gladly have inserted any replies to these letters 
of Mr. Choate, but it was not his habit to preserve the 
27* 



318 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

letters of his correspondents, and so we are debarred 
that privilege.] 

[From Rufus ChoateJ] 

Washington, Jan. 21, 1832. 

My dear Sir : — I received a few days since a portion of a 
work on which I had heard you were engaged, addressed to 
me in a handwriting which I could not fail to recognize as 
yours, although the most recent specimen of it in my possession 
is now about eleven years old. I embrace the generous inti- 
mation conveyed in this notice, to present to you my respects, 
and to extend to you, in the language of ordination, the right 
hand of that old and cherished fellowship to which I owe so 
much. Is it not wise and prudent, as well as delightful, to con- 
sider it renewed at once — to suppose all explanation on both 
sides frankly given and kindly received, and all traces of es- 
trangement in the memory of either, covered up by the return- 
ing and warm tide of our former affection ? So may it be ; 
and if I, who am the offending party, am thus ready and desir- 
ous to forget and jump the last eleven years and begin, you, 
who are merely the injured one, I hope and trust will be as 
good tempered. It came into my head, as Bunyan says, when 
I learned that Dr. Condit, who boards at a friend's, and with 
whom I had the pleasure to become early acquainted, was the 
father of your late wife, that this matter would be overruled to 
the renewing of our acquaintance. It must be so, and I rejoice 
at it, and shall proceed to consider it as a thing settled and 
fore-ordered. 

How have these eleven years — twelve years, is it not ? — 
how has time, " which changes every thing, and man more than 
any thing," dealt with you ? What a curiosity one feels to see 
if he can find the traces of that imperceptible, busy, and really 
awful touch, under which temple and tower at length fall down, 
upon the countenance and person, in the eye, tones, and feel- 
ings of an old friend long absent. 

In one respect this long interval has been to both of us alike 
— full of short joy and enduring sorrow — each having pos- 
sessed and lost an object of dearest love which the other never 
saw. But I forget that perhaps you never heard that I have 
buried, within two years, a most sweet and bright child of four 
years old, whom I would have given a right arm to save. It 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 319 

must be a vast alleviation of your far greater bereavement, 
that your child is spared. 

A hundred thousand recollections come over me as I write 
to you, which slop me, make me lay down my pen, and rest 
my head on my handV Dismissing them all, I beg to know 
why you will not come on here a little while this winter? lie- 
sides your friends at Dr. Lyndsley's, you will find at least one 
old pupil besides myself (?) — a Mrs. Hunt, the wife of a mem- 
ber, who remembers your turn of service at Mr. Dunham's 
Seminary, with respect and affection, and some few other ob- 
jects of interest. Let go the pains and pleasures of authorship 
for a month, come and see with how little wisdom the world is 
governed, and return with a lighter heart to Mohammed and 
Joseph, Arabia, Egypt, and the waters of Israel. I have got 
a chamber in a third story by myself — a long table, perhaps 
the most desirable of luxuries — with two windows looking out 
upon the shores of Virginia, the setting sun, and the grave of 
Washington. Here you shall sit, if you will, and we will sacri- 
fice to renewed friendship and auld lang syne. 

But I forget all proprieties, like the Dominie upon the re- 
covery of Bertram. I stop short, therefore, first earnestly hop- 
ing to hear from you immediately. 

With great regard and affection, 

Yours, R. Choate. 

[From Rufus Choate.'] 

Washington, Feb. 12, 1832. 

My dear Sir : — I hardly can get time, so " strenuous " and 
full of incident is the idleness of our life here, to write a let- 
ter, except of a Sunday afternoon, after a morning at Church. 
Last Sunday I began to write you, was interrupted, and like a 
resolution offered the last month of the session, it has stood 
over one week. I shall send you what I write to-day, though 
it be no more than a bare expression of thanks for your letter, 
and a hope to have many more like it. 

I hear from Dr. Condit that your brother's health compels 
him to take a voyage, which of coui-se puts it out of your power 
to continue your personal attentions. If this leaves you so 
much disengaged that you can come, I hope to see you here 
yet. You will be driven from that great city by the Cholera, 
I am afraid, before long — an awful scourge of national and 



320 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

personal sins, which we can no more escape in this country 
than we can turn back the East wind to his sources in the 
caves of the sea. I board with a physician, and have therefore 
an instructed and reasonable dread of this business. But whoso 
best knows Washington, will be least disposed to recommend it 
as a city of refuge. 

I was surprised at the reasons you suggest for withdrawing 
from the pulpit. But it little matters what the vocation is, if 
it be suited to the measure, fulness, and desires of the minds 
which it attaches to itself. I think educated, tasteful, and 
knowing men, however, should remember that " great parts 
are a great trust," and that there is responsibleness connected 
as well with the proper selection of employment as with the 
discharge of its duties when selected. I hold a good book and 
good sermon to be not only well per se, but to be worthy, fit- 
ting, and adequate achievements of good minds. Authorship 
and the business of instruction go well together, however, or 
else the introduction to Old Mortality is as much a fiction as 
the main story. 

I should think quocumque nomine gaudeo, however em- 
ployed, New York would be a pleasant residence for you. To 
be sure, as in duty bound, I hold Boston, with its University 
society, rather the best place to live in, in all North America, 
but I cannot but see its inferiority in some respects to New 
York. You are so near to England, and so central to all the 
art, enterprise, science, mind, and politics of the Republic, that 
you have great advantages over the more provincial portions 
of the country, so much further from which the " sun drives 
his chariot." There must be a wide circle of fine minds in that 
city. Verplanch here is such an one, I should think — "a 
thing that's most uncommon" — an honest, learned, modest, 
reasonable man, yet a Van-Buren. 

Jacksonian — credite posteri ! What do you think now, I 
have the Shakspeare here which you gave me, and I read a 
few lines of Greek and Latin every morning, and I trust if we 
should meet, we could take each other up just where we were 
set down twelve years ago — even in the humanities. In all 
'•' love and honor," respect and affection, I am sure w r e could. 
I wish you would write me very often ; assured always that 
you write to a constant as well as old friend. 
Yours ever, 

R. Choate. 



OF PEOF. GEORGE BUSH. 321 

[From Rufus Choate.~\ 

My dear Friend: — Your letter finds me swallowing lots of 
wormwood tea — not to sweeten my imagination — but to check 
a furious sick headache — a poor mood for answering deep 
questions, though an excellent one for appreciating a letter from 
a loved and honored friend. Did I not talk about you an hour 
to Dr. Bond — Tutor Bond — last Sunday evening ? The Dr. 
stands against time like " an obelisk fronting the sun." He 
reminds me of Livy's pictured page, I warrant me, of consuls, 
lictors, axes, and especially Tarpeian rocks, — down which all 
nullifiers and state-rights men, except you, ought to be precipi- 
tated. Senatus considto, edito, plebescito — ad id omnibus con- 
sentientibus. Latin or no Latin — under the grammar or 
against it, how the missionaries settled this matter with their 
cause and consciences, I have never heard. Speaking as a 
politician, I rejoice that Georgia has been thus detached from 
South Carolina, and harnessed into the great car of the Con- 
stitution. It needs tali auxilio and defensoribus istis even. 
My dear friend, there is no more danger of consolidation (that 
is until the States first go apart, snapping their ties of gauze), 
than there is of an invasion by the great Xerxes of Herodotus. 
One single mistake now ; any yielding, any thing short of a dead 
march up to the whole outermost limit of constitutional power 
and the federal government, is contemptible forever. The 
Georgia case is to be sure a bad business. It is a clear case of 
nullification by the state ; but so far as the missionaries are 
concerned, the federal government has not declined any duty. 
The judiciary performed its part. The President is called on 
for nothing until another application to the federal judiciary, 
and that you see the pardon interposes to render unnecessary. 
The two systems have not directly clashed, though they hit 
their thumbs. The Indians — the treatise — the whole code 
of intercourse law — all go overboard, of course. 

The moral guilt of the South Carolina case is less — the 
constitutional enormity of the thing is more palpable and more 
tangible — and the precedent pejoris exempli — pessimi indeed. 

I never said the revenue should come to fifteen mills. If I 
did, let me be called home. I never said it even maid fide, 
still less bona. That would be too much of a committal. I 
am printed, however, and will be judged by the Intelligencers 
so far as the fifteen mills go. For the rest — it was a speech 
solely to get the tariff over to another Congress. 



322 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

I am half dead with a sort of sick stomach, sensitiveness of 
stomach, nausea, headache, and so for three days I have kept 
my room, yet ready to be summoned to a vote. 

The session is now one of thrilling interest. Calhoun is drunk 
with disappointment, — the image of an ardent, imagina- 
tive, intellectual man, who once thought it as easy to set the 
stars of glory in the hair on his brow as to put his hat on 
— now ruined, dishonored. He has to defend the most con- 
temptible untruth in the whole history of human opinion, and 
no ability will save him from contempt mentally. Then he 
hoped to recover himself by a brilliant stroke — permanently 
inserting nullification into our polity, and putting himself at the 
head of a great Convention of the States — a great midnight 
thunderstorm, hailstorm, meeting of witches and demons, 
round a cauldron big enough to receive the disjected mem- 
ber of the Constitution — thence never forth to come, a whole, 
still less a blooming, young and vigorous form. Wherefore 
pereat. 

I am somewhat weak from medicine and must bid you fare- 
well. Write me daily, and reconsider the point of consolidation. 
I say that will come with Xerxes. Mrs. Dr. Condit is a little 
ill — not alarmingly. 

Truly yours, 

E. Choate. 

Tuesday Evening. 

\From Rufus Choate.'] 

Salem, Aug. 21, 1833. 

My dear Sir : — I am glad you are safely at home again, 
since you cannot be here, and that, between authorship and 
the contemplation of matrimony, you are in no danger of the 
ennui which, in spite of my profession, sometimes follows me for 
days together : — a lazy, lubberly, inexorable demon. I don't 
know any thing I need so much as a course of reading which I 
I may go to regularly in the hours I even now spare from busi- 
ness and law, which I could pursue with the gratified conscious- 
ness that I was making progress towards a seen result, which 
should connect itself in some measure with my necessary em- 
ployments and reading, and help me on — not towards general 
knowledge, but towards those more specific, defined, and lim- 
ited attainments and accomplishments which ought to bound 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 323 

the aims of a man of business. Wherefore, between twelve 
and one p.m., and again from two to three, p m., and in the 
evening, I drift from book to book and subject to subject, in 
the torture of irresolution, of balanced, neutralizing, capricious 
tastes, cravings, loathings. To which state of things I beg 
your professional attention. Lay out the work of these two or 
three hours, and I will go to it, if it is the Punic Wars — the 
origin of the Doric race — Gustavus Vasa — demonology — 
prophecy — Mohammed — or what you will. I wish I had 
talked about this when you were here. 

I ought to beg your pardon for obtruding myself upon you 
thus abruptly, instead of first answering your letter. But I 
had just come from an hour misspent and lost over half a dozen 
books, and finding your letter, thought I would state the case 
to a wise friend. 

Our little girl is quite recovered, and gone to-day to her 
grandmother's, as have her mother and sister. 

How the Gibboniana might sell, it were hard to say ; but I 
should think the name of the editor, that is yourself, and of the 
series, would give it a great chance for itself. That it ought 
to sell, and be held by all reading persons, especially all sorts 
of persons pretending to be bookish, is so plain that it is useless 
to prove it. I read his life first, a freshman or sophomore, on 
your recommendation. I say it is better calculated to blow up 
the kindling fire of literary ambition and love, than any other 
thing of its inches that I ever read. And all the volumes are 
full, pressed down and running over with deep scholarship, pro- 
found thought, searching and comprehensive inquiry, going to 
every thing almost that has ever interested the cultivated hu- 
man mind. Classical learning chiefly though, I should think, 
would receive an impulse from such a publication : it will in- 
spire the taste, show the value, and guide to the acquisition of 
that crowning accomplishment of the individual and the nation. 
We are but a vulgar people without such learning. I hope 
you will go on with this project in spite of men and columns. 
Make capital notes to the Essay on the Study of Literature. 

I am afraid I have the scrofula a little under my ear on my 
throat. But perhaps it is only an infallible premonitory symp- 
tom. I happen to be very much engaged this afternoon, and 
must bid you an abrupt good by. Why not tell me who you 
are going to marry ? 

Yours, most truly, 

R. Choate. 



324 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

[From JRufus Choate.~] 

Salem, Sept. 15, 1833. 

My dear Sir: — I am just starting for a week's tower of 
duty (as Major Downing says) at Connecticut, and can therefore 
only barely disburthen myself of one exclamation of sorrow, 
surprise and misgiving, over this failure of the Hanover specu- 
lation — if I may use such very secular phraseology. Every 
thing works together for evil against our Alma Mater, and 
conspires to " press her beaming forehead to the dust." I 
shall wait with great interest, Mr. Olcott's expose ; and in the 
mean time will lay a whole law library against the Tales of my 
Landlord, that the fault is not yours. 

When I get home from Connecticut I will tell you what I 
think of that logic and of the thing to be demonstrated. Do 
you send me the New York papers ? If so, or whosoever he 
be, I am extremely obliged for the kindness. 
Very truly yours, in extreme haste, 

R. Choate. 

\From Rafus Choate.'] 

Hall of House, Dec. 28, 1833. 

My dear Sir : — I shall have great pleasure in sending the 
Document to the Dr. — first reading it, which I never yet did. 
Did you get my letter from Salem, inviting you to a meeting 
at the American Hotel in New York ? If not, I grieve, and if 
you did, still more at the fatality which kept us apart. This 
removal of the deposits is the act of the President, and is not 
a scruple less an act of usurpation than turning the Senate out 
of doors and putting the key in his pocket. Mind that. '• Woe 
for Scotland" if the people bear this. The government is in 
the hands of one man — strong in the strength of a flushed, 
organized, attached majority. He and that majority are the 
government, and all the intermediate institutions of the Con- 
stitution, legislative and judicial, are mere nonentities. 
Truly yours, 

R. Choate. 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 325 

\From Rufus Choate.~] 

Washington, Jan. 7, 1844. 

My dear Mr. Bush : — I grieve that I did not see you at 
New York, were it but to have united in a momentary objur- 
gation of all celebrations on wet days ; though I should have 
been still more delighted to sit down and charm out of these 
cells of sleep about a million of memories. But it did not oc- 
cur to me that you could possibly be present; and I had not an 
instant to go out to call on you. 

I have known, say a half dozen very able men who hold 
Swedenborg just as you do. Theophilus Parsons, of Boston, 
is one, who is a man of genius. For my part I know him not, 
and have a timorous disinclination to being shaked, waked, or 
stunned out of the crude "trivial fond" prejudices and implicit 
takings up of a whole life ! But it is your privilege to be a 
seeker for truth, with pure aims and a most appreciating eye 
and spirit. Sit mea anima cum tud. 

Yours truly, 



R. Choate. 



\From Rufus Choate.'] 



My dear Sir : — I have just returned from the burial of 
Mr. Olcott. You will have heard of his death, after a month 
of extreme agony, from stone and kindred causes. 

I could stay only an hour or two after the funeral, and in 
that time the recollections of every one of the bereaved circle 
were turned by a common impulse and with great tenderness 
to you, whom he loved and appreciated so truly, and by whom 
he was loved and appreciated. It seemed to us all that it 
would have soothed him and us if you could have been there. 

May I say that a wish was expressed to and by every one, 
that you would, if it is possible, sketch such an outline of his 
life, culture, and character, as seems to you just? Perhaps 
the New York Observer would be to the family an acceptable 
vehicle, but I should cause it to be published elsewhere. 

The general facts are familiar to you, of course. But an 
idea of his training — taste — wit — gentleman-like nature — ■ 
public charities — wisdom — you alone can give. 

I cannot press this, or add all the inducements which I could 
28 



326 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

privately. In this mode, I can only say, it would be the kindest 
office affection ever performed. 

I am most truly, 
July 16, 1845. R. Choate. 

[From Rufus Choate.'] 

My dear Sir: — I have just received your letter, and ear- 
nestly hope that you will be able to prepare a sketch. Circum- 
stances make it impossible to expect, it from Prof. H., and if 
they did not, a thousand reasons would induce us to throw our- 
selves on you. He died on Friday, 11th July, aged seventy- 
one. I grieve that it should happen to be particularly and 
personally disagreeable to you. I hope the resurrectionists 
disturb you not, and that the whole of the forthcoming work 
will be as rich as the portion you sent me. 
Most truly yours, 

July 21. R. Choate. 

[From Dr. Leonard Woods.] 

Andover, Mass., Oct. 28, 1844. 

Rev. G. Bush : — My dear Brother, — I always read what 
comes from your mind and your pen with gratification. And I 
would be thankful to God, that he has given you qualifications 
for distinguished usefulness. It shall be my prayer, that he 
would so direct and govern the operations of your mind, that 
you may successfully and truly expound the sacred volume, 
and contribute largely to the advancement of the cause of truth 
and holiness in the world. I cannot avoid the impression, that 
you are called of God to very important labors in the way of 
defending the truth and exposing the various forms of error. 
But in order to this, it is important that you should cultivate 
sound judgment, and great sobriety, and a deep sense of the 
fallibility of human reason, and of the duty of sitting as a 
learner at the feet of our Divine Teacher. I say the fallibility 
of reason. Just consider a moment. You have reason. In 
you the faculty is strong and active. And I suppose you will 
allow, that 1 have the faculty of reason, and have cultivated it 
with some care, and that for more than fifty years. But what- 
ever may be true in regard to me. other men can be named 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 327 

who were distinguished for the strength and acuteness of their 
reasoning power — ■ as Calvin, Turrettin, Edwards, Dwight, 
and numberless divines and philosophers like them. These 
men all reasoned differently from you. And, of course, the 
reason of all these men was, in your view, fallible, very fallible. 
As to myself, I have read with great interest, and somewhat of 
an intense application, your book on the resurrection. And in 
regard to the main principle, the grand theory, I am not con- 
vinced by your arguments. My reason decides against your 
scheme. You will, of course, have no hesitation in determining 
that my reason is fallible. And this I believe as fully as you 
do. Now when I say, human reason is fallible, I mean the 
reason of all men, — the reason of every man, the reason of 
John Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards, and Timothy Dwight, and 
George Bush. And I wish it may be a practical sentiment 
with you, never forgotten, occurring at every turn; not that 
it should prevent you from using your reason, and using it 
earnestly ; but that you should be aware of your exposedness 
to mistake, and should feel the necessity of keeping close to that 
teacher who is not fallible. This sentiment of human falli- 
bility was specially called for, when you found yourself tending 
to a habit of thinking so different from that which has pre- 
vailed among the great body of wise and pious men in all ages 
of the Christian era ; and when it was your desire and hope to 
enjoy the confidence as well as respect of Christians at large, 
and to do them good by your publications. Probably you ex- 
pected that the best men in our community would be satis- 
fied with your reasoning, and would embrace your theory. 
But had I been in your case, I should have delayed the publi- 
cation of such a book longer, and should have submitted the 
work to the inspection of such a number of individuals, as 
might be considered a fair representation of the most enlight- 
ened part of the religious public. I should have availed 
myself of their remarks, and should have endeavored, with 
their help, and with the necessary aids of the Divine Spirit, to 
determine whether it was the will of God that I should give 
such a work to the public. Had you consulted me, I should 
have entreated you, with all the ardor of the sincerest friend- 
ship, to keep the subject under consideration for a good while 
longer, and to devote yourself to your great work of expound- 
ing the Old Testament. I should have told you, that the pub- 
lication of such a book would turn to your disadvantage as an 
author, and would be the means of injuring your usefulness. 



328 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

And had you asked me for my reasons, I should have said, 
that the principle which you have tried to establish by reason, 
is not established ; that reason and philosophy do not lead to 
any such result ; that the doctrine of Swedenborg which you 
adopt, respecting an immediate resurrection of every one at 
the instant of death, is a figment, a dream, having nothing to 
support it but a vivid, creative imagination ; that if it would 
be reasoned old, — if it seemed to be supported by philosophy, 
still reason and philosophy, which are nothing but the actings 
of the little mind of man, must yield entirely to the teachings 
of the infinite mind ; that the resurrection of Christ, so often 
spoken of in the Bible, was the resurrection of Christ as to Ms 
body, and that the resurrection of the saints is their resurrec- 
tion as to their bodily state, and is a future event. I have 
long held the opinion, which you so clearly establish, that the 
identity or sameness of body implies no such thing as the same- 
ness of the particles of matter composing the body. "When I 
speak of myself as having the same face, or hands, or head, 
or the same bones and sinews, which I had forty years or four 
years ago, I do not mean that the identical particles of matter, 
either in whole or in part, which I then had, belong to me still. 
Identity is another thing. Even as to the mind, what immense 
changes does a man undergo from infancy to manhood, though 
he has in truth the same mind — as every man knows — knows, I 
mean, so far as his memory reaches. And changes will doubt- 
less be going on in all future time in the same mind. So men 
may have the same bodies hereafter as they have now — the 
same in the higher sense of sameness — the same to all intents 
and purposes in which self-conscious beings are concerned with 
identity, — although they undergo the changes spoken of in 1 
Cor. xv : — i.e., although in their bodily state they are changed 
from being corruptible, mortal, weak, and natural, to incorrupti- 
ble, immortal, powerful, and spiritual. Your remarks on Matt, 
xxii : 31,32, seem to me substantially correct. But because 
the Greek word in that place is used to denote an intelligent, 
conscious existence, or life, after death, and that only, it does 
not follow that it means so in other places. It might be used 
in this sense to meet the objections of the Sadducees, who 
denied a future state. This sense naturally came out in refer- 
ence to them ; and this sense was sufficient. But the meaning 
of words is very pliable, and is obliged to be so in order to meet 
the great variety of subjects to which they are and must be 
applied. 



OF PROF. GEORGE f!USH. 329 

But I must stop. I did not intend to enter on any discus- 
sion, or to state any specific objections ; but only to let you know 
that I stand fast where I was, and stand more firmly than 
before, having derived much benefit from your book, and being 
more established than formerly in the belief of the common 
doctrine, from the failure of so able an attempt to overthrow it. 

Your book will be reviewed, I have no doubt, and I wish it 
may be done in a right manner. I have had considerable 
inclination to review it myself. But my hearty love and esteem 
for you would make it painful to do it, as I should feel it neces- 
sary to inflict heavy blows, — not indeed upon the author (this 
I would not do), but upon the book. I should endeavor to 
show that the method of reasoning is fundamentally wrong ; 
that it is the extreme of rationalism ; that it tends to under- 
mine the authority of God's word ; that it does violence, as 
the author sometimes appears to feel, to some of the plainest 
teachings of the inspired writers, and that it does needlessly 
introduce a subject of debate which will be likely to involve 
many minds in confusion and scepticism. Many persons will 
say, if the true sense of the Bible is to be found out in such a 
way as this, we must give up the pursuit as desperate. 

My dear brother, excuse me for my freedom ; and if need 
be, forgive my ignorance and my errors. And impute it not as 
my sin, that I wish your time and talents to be employed on 
other subjects and in other ways. George Bush is a great 
ship, with large, very large sails, and a large and precious cargo, 
— gold, silver, and pi'ecious stones, and rich and wholesome 
provisions. But she has got upon a boisterous sea in a stormy 
season; and unless the sails are taken in, and the helm is 
managed with great care, there is danger of her running upon 
rocks and quicksands ; for rocks and quicksands there are, on 
which many ships have been wrecked in times past, though but 
a few so valuable, and the loss of which would be so great as 
this. Your affectionate brother,* 

Leonard Woods. 

\From Joseph N. Vaton, Scotland."] 

Dunfermline, March 12, 1853. 

Dear Sir: — I duly received yours of 12th December last, 
and I esteem it as a valued token of your respect, inasmuch as 
it is from one that understands the City that has come down 

28* 



330 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

from God out of heaven. I did feel disappointed at receiving 
no notice from you, as even reproof would Lave been more 
agreeable to me than silence ; but I can see bow the mistake 
has arisen. The poor fellow that should have forwarded to 
me your letter, etc., has degraded himself by folly, so far that 
his conduct in this matter does not surprise me. I received 
the two numbers you refer to, and believed at the time they 
must have come from you, for -which accept my best thanks. 
I receive as regularly as possible, your Magazine, and have 
done so for some years, and I feel sorry that it is so ill sup- 
ported. England alone might take all that are published ; but 
it is a faithful witness against the popes of the modern Baby- 
lon, and you are not ignorant of their despotic poAver ; hence it 
is but little esteemed, although it compels respect. Allow me 
to express my satisfaction with the powerful article in your 
pages, by a hero of the truth, in reply to the lot mode of 
priest-making. It very satisfactorily batters down the rotten 
stumps upon which the manumancers have built their tower of 
Babel. The origin and continuance of priestcraft in what is 
called the New Church is easily accounted for. It is a total 
misunderstanding of what the New Church really is, in blindly 
supposing it to be a confederacy of men, instead of being a 
kingdom in the heart. Hindmarsh's reasons for an organization 
are sufficient proof. And in the second place, the clerical or- 
der itself, in its natural love for pre-eminence, and necessity for 
support, stop short half-way to the city. They are too much 
engaged with the mere truth in the understanding, and rest 
chiefly in that, while the regeneration of the natural principle 
in them is greatly disregarded : they are in the knowledge of 
truth, and blinded by the love of self, at the same time. They 
worship the gods of the kings of Ashur, and are prodigious 
Goliaths, expert in external warfare, but they must perish with 
their Gomorrah in the brightness of the Lord's coming. Oh, 
that they could enter Gethsemane, a state of rational intelli- 
gence, and there, in true humility, wrestle with the powers of 
darkness, exclaiming in true, heartfelt anguish, Father, if it be 
possible, let this cup pass from me, — the bitter cup of the in- 
flux of evil into the unsanctified natural principle, still under 
the government and power of the love of the evil and the 
false, — then truth, divine truth would sustain and deliver them, 
and then the Church would be redeemed from the infestation 
of hirelings, of thieves and robbers, and come out bright as the 
sun, clear as the moon, and terrible a; a:i army with banners. 



OP PROP. GEORGP BUSH. 331 

This, my clear sir, must come to pass, for the New Jerusalem, 
the holy city, will yet stand forth in all its true glory, and all 
human folly shall perish before it in all that believe. 

Your bold stand against slavery does your faithfulness honor. 
May God sustain you in your great work as a witness of the 
truth, in this godless generation. Thanks to the truth, we can 
discern the signs of the times. It is awful to contemplate the 
idea of New Churchmen pleading that the divine order sus- 
tains them in the traffic of the souls and bodies of their fellow- 
men. Such New Churchmen are a scandal and a reproach to 
the Christian name. Well may the demons of such cry out for 
Church organization conferences, and priests. It is the case, and 
has always been, that the more external men are, the more they 
are set upon external fuss and outward order, while they re- 
main proportionally blind to the purity of the inward temple. 

Your views upon Church polity, I have no doubt, will be of a 
sound character, and I am impatient to see them. For my own 
part I feel convinced that no man can make rules for another ; 
and as I can recognize no Church out of man, I can justify no 
Church so called, in making rules for its members. I hold that 
the divine truth is the law and the testimony, and that the di- 
vine love is the ruling supi'eme ; and if the Church in man 
were as it is represented in Rev. viii, from 13th to the end of 
the chapter, truth would be her garment, and, taught by the 
Lord, the divine good would be the sustaining power. But 
when will the chief stars of what is called the New Jerusalem, 
by temptation, come out of their self-love, to be arrayed in 
white, and to stand or be upright before the- Lord in true wor- 
ship, that they may enjoy the delights of heavenly beatitude ? 
As yet the mere mess of pottage will secure their birthright ; 
they prefer as yet to lie among the pots — the absurd doctri- 
nals of the priestly fathers of an obscure antiquity, scarcely 
visible in the mists of Roman fiction. 

Since writing the above, I have received the three last num- 
bers for 1852, and in the first of them I find your article on 
organization just what it should be, and I express my satisfac- 
tion at your clear, firm, and most just view of the subject. 
You have somewhere said that it is your mission in the New 
Church to bear witness against its priestcraft. I have been of 
this persuasion ever since your conversion to the " camp of 
the saints," and your first article on the subject confirmed my 
opinion ; and I doubt not that you have already done mortal 
work against the enemy, such as no other man could have done, 



332 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

without the prestige of your name ; that is, such a name. Scot- 
land is cold as the snow of her mountains, to priestcraft, and our 
English priests are lowering their standard. They will now al- 
low me, or any such, to baptize and administer the supper, if we 
will but acknowledge their authority, and ask their permission. 
But he who can acknowledge their power to confer these privi- 
leges should receive upon his rather brainless head, a priestmak- 
er's " nieve," with the cabalistic formula that contains the very 
reverend spell that so very miraculously transforms a mere lay- 
man into a living, whole, and entire, reverend clergyman in a 
few seconds. • 

I have read with the greatest interest, your three articles 
upon pseudo-Spiritualism, and I offer you my sincere thanks 
for your satisfactory remarks, combined with that candor which 
is most creditable to you. We are not ignorant of Satan's de- 
vices, for we know that the latter days were to be accompanied 
with antichrist and lying wonders, insomuch as if it were pos- 
sible, they would deceive the very elect. I have also seen the 
Celestial Telegraph, and it is really painful to see Swedenborg 
so disgracefully misrepresented, by making him proclaim the 
latter-day antichrist. By way of conclusion — All I have said 
is but a small purlieu of what might be said against our modern 
Balaams, but by far too much without a word of explanation. 
It savors too much of their own spirit. I only give it expres- 
sion to a friend, as the evidence of a natural conviction from 
our divine philosophy. The natural minded will suppose your 
opposition too tame, but the spiritual minded will be of a differ- 
ent opinion. The external man would, with the* club of truth, 
pound to pieces all opposition, forgetting that such is the very 
spirit of Babylon. If the so-called rulers and governors of the 
New Church are to be brought out from among the pots, I be- 
lieve it is their hearts and not their heads that must be reached. 
Hudibras expresses it clearly : — 

" A man convinced against his will, 
Is of the same opinion still." 

And the reason that the members of what is called The Church 
are so much divided on this subject, is that they are all either 
of the spiritual or of the celestial genus ; and their teachers do 
not sufficiently instruct regarding those states. The celestials 
abhor controversy, the spirituals delight in it ; but were it right- 
ly understood, the celestials would recognize the spiritual func- 



OF PROF. GEOFvGE BUSH. 333 

tion, and the spirituals would recognize the affection principle 
of the celestials, and all would be peace and love, in the knowl- 
edge that both must be sustained with food convenient ; but one 
minister in one place never can feed both, without deceit. Al- 
low me to finish by saying, Every one must recognize a preach- 
ing function in the true believer. It is the result of his faith, 
and I believe requires no call of a society, nor any superior 
talent, although superiority in this respect is to be valued ; but 
the head cannot say to the feet, There is no need of you. The 
external Church, or, the external form of the Church, is com- 
posed of many members, and ought to be in the same harmony 
as the members of the human body. All that are in truth 
from love are commanded by the great Shepherd to feed his 
sheep, and there is none truly in the holy city, that is not in 
truth from love, or rather, in truth and its affection. If Christ 
were truly the head of all things to the Church, were he the 
head of its external form, then all the members would obey the 
head, and then all things would be done in charity ; but when 
priests assume this headship, Christ is dishonored, and the 
Church becomes a visible Babylon. The blind priests of the 
perverted Church suppose that the Lord is absent, and has left 
them to rule in his stead, until he come again ; and this igno- 
rance is a cloak for their sin ; but as in the Lord's second com- 
ing, his presence constitutes the New Church in man, so the 
folly of the priests of it is most manifest, when they would so 
profanely attempt to usurp the Lord's place. These must be 
exposed, that they may be ashamed. 

April dth. — As I have yet a little space, allow me to carry 
on my desultory remarks to the end of the page. I feel in- 
clined to think that the true spirit of the abominable Roman 
Babel has a deeply rooted foundation in all men ; but this can- 
not be clearly seen until the natural principle be regenerated. 
Indeed, until the light of the new dispensation of the Lord 
dawned upon this world of sin, no correct idea of this regener- 
ation was attainable ; and it is even only the advanced in the 
true Church, who understand and act from its internal and ex- 
ternal in man, that can see in its true character the perverted 
Churchin this perverted Chi'istian world : — I should rather 
say, in the perverted human heart of all in all denominations of 
whatever Christian name. The whole straining of evangeliza- 
tion of all is jesuitically directed to the mere rational acknowl- 
edgment of a dogma — priests every where fighting for them- 



334 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

selves under the banner of charity and love. The superstitious 
are their victims, and the hypocrite cleaves to the spiritual des- 
potism that serves his selfishness and feeds his spiritual pride. 
So the reign of darkness is complete. But it is known by the 
signs of the times, that the deliverer is nigh, and the shining 
of the glorious light that is to enlighten every land is now ap- 
pearing. Let us walk in that light, and no longer stumble in 
the darkness of those that are so blind that they cannot see. 
The true shepherd, from true charity, will lead the sheep to the 
true fountain of living water, and not to the cold abstractions 
of a mere philosophy, no matter how intellectual or how ex- 
alted. I am, my dear sir, 

Yours, sincerely in the truth, 

Jos. N. Vaton. 

[From George B. Arnold, Alton.'] 



A dead church, it is true, may consistently enough deprecate 
scientific investigations. A church which rests on mere blind 
authority, which has neither rationality in her doctrines nor 
good in her life, may well fear a removal of the rubbish which 
will expose to view, in the open light of day, her rotten foun- 
dations. She may well denounce the sciences of geology, phre- 
nology, astronomy, as well as mesmeric and social science, as 
rank infidelity, for she well knows that the prosecution of these 
sciences will demonstrate her fabric to be only a " baseless 
vision," the fantastic creation of self-derived intelligence. 

But how, it may be asked, will the authority of Swedenborg 
be affected by this discussion ? Will he not be regarded by 
many as only a more clever clairvoyant ? Perhaps he will ; 
and what of that ? lie has thus far generally been regarded 
as insane, and clairvoyance certainly is not worse than insanity. 
But truth is not to be concealed because some will draw false 
inferences from it, by their own perverted reasonings. The 
science of geology is not to be denounced, because sceptics may 
suppose that it overthrows the authority of the Scriptures. The 
doctrines propounded by Swedenborg need no support from 
concealment, nor from fallacies. Truth is sufficient for itself. 
Nothing can add to its sanctity, nothing to the authority with 
which it addresses itself to every rational mind. It is the voice 
of God through whatever medium it may be uttered. Hence 
a true and universal system of doctrines, scientific, philosophi- 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSII. 335 

cal, and theological, taken in connection with the experience 
of mankind, will be found so to interlock in innumerable places, 
like the materials of a well-constructed building, and to knit 
itself together into one harmonious whole, that the less of for- 
eign props that are applied to it, the more firmly will it stand, 
and the more impregnable will it be against all assaults. 
' Hence to the truly rational receiver of Swedenborg's writ- 
ings, to one who has not entered the church under cover of a 
blind faith, the question of Swedenborg's authority is one of 
the least possible consequence. He may be called a mere 
clairvoyant, or even a madman ; nay, it might be demonstrat- 
ed, if this were possible, that he actually was either the one or 
the other, and it would make no difference, for to such a one 
truth icould still be truth, whatever may have been the state of 
the man, Emanuel Swedenborg. 

It is chiefly on account of his calm confidence in truth that 
wc admire Professor Bush. He does not too nicely, and from 
overweening self-confidence, calculate consequences. He seems 
to believe in the system of doctrines propounded by Sweden- 
borg, not because of any marvels exhibited by him, but because 
the doctrines themselves are seen to be sustained by one an- 
other, and by all the experience of mankind. Therefore when 
any new experience presents itself, he seizes it without fear, 
and gives it its fitting place in the foundation of this system ; 
and should any modification of the superstructure be necessary, 
in order that the experience might fit, I doubt not he would be 
among the first to make it, knowing full well, as he does, that 
facts will not bend themselves to suit the " foregone conclu- 
sions " of the blind or the indolent. 

Straightforward, then, and with noble enthusiasm let him 
pursue his way. Let him be moved neither by the bitter de- 
nunciations of avowed, nor the cold and sidelong glances of 
professed friends, and he will not lack encouragement from 
the wise and good. Let him still be devoted to truth itself, 
as it flows ever from its own infinite fountain, little caring 
through what medium it may come to him. Let him perse- 
vere, forgetful of self, and thousands of earnest minds in this 
and other lands will bless him for having furnished them most 
timely aid. Nay, let all who are looking for the coming light 
take courage. All signs are auspicious. The day is already 
dawning. The Church is already beginning to put on her gar- 
ments of beauty. Science is about to be married to religion, 
and earth to heaven. 

Feb. 8, 1847. 



33G MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

[From Robert Elf] 

Charleston, S. C, April 8, 1853. 

My dear Sir : — I inclose three dollars for my subscription 
to the Repository for the present year, and send you my best 
wishes for your health and happiness, and that in your efforts 
to promote the cause of truth, you may find your reward in 
seeing those efforts successful. 

I wish to inform you that I have been reading a work en- 
titled " Spiritual Christianity," written by the late Charles Au- 
gustus Tulk, which has profoundly impressed me with the 
truth of the views which he holds in relation to the great sub- 
ject of the doctrine of the Lord. I have hitherto understood 
that doctrine as explained by Mr. Noble in his lectures, and 
by yourself in the letters addressed to a Trinitarian, to be the 
true meaning of what Swedenborg has written in relation 
thereto. But my ideas have undergone a great change since I 
have read Mr. Tulk's book ; and I am now impressed that the 
appearance of the Lord in time and space as a man, was in re- 
ality nothing more than the influx or descent of the Divine 
truth into the plane of the natural and sensual mind, and thence 
imaged forth objectively to the senses, in like manner as his 
appearance as an angel to those of a former church was a de- 
scent and influx of the same Divine Truth into the spiritual 
plane of the mind. All connection or communication which 
the Lord holds, or has ever held with man or his church, has 
been by means of influx, according to. the mental states of those 
with whom have been the successive churches. His last ap- 
pearance was his influx into the percipient mind of the natural 
and sensual man, and in full correspondence to all things of its 
state. What is called his assuming humanity, was the influx 
and descent of the divine essence into the lowest mental and 
ultimate state. He neither put on the human, nor put off the 
human. But in the same way, and by the same law, as lie ap- 
peared to those of a former church as an angel, in the same way 
and by the same law he appeared as a man to those "of a fallen, 
external, and sensuous state, because they had became too low 
to view Him from a higher plane of the mind, viz: to view him 
as an angel. This view of Mi-. Tulk's has affected me very 
much ; it is truly a spiritual view, and supersedes much that 
has been written about his temptations as a man, his over- 
coming evil, his glorification, and much more connected with 



OP PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 337 

his history on the earth : — His history on the earth being an 
exhibition in nature of the mixed states of those who received 
him, or of the state of a fallen and corrupt church which was 
incapable of receiving and beholding the Divine Truth in any 
other way than in accordance with their own evils and infirm- 
ities. Certainly it does not seem rational that God should 
appear in time and space. He cannot be seen by the natural 
eye ; the natural eye can only see the infirmities correspondent 
to its own state, and therefore to the natural eye, or to the 
natural mind, the Lord was seen as subject to hunger and 
thirst, to temptation, to bodily pain and suffering, and to all 
the changes to which man is subject in a state of nature. How 
then is God to be seen ? He can only be seen and received 
mentally — by a mind cleansed of all evil and falsity, such as 
he was seen by the apostles at the time of his transfiguration, 
who were elevated to the state necessary for sucli a beholding, 
and which is described in the Gospel by the words following : 
"After six days Jesus taketh with him Peter, and James, and 
John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain," etc., signi- 
fying an elevation of spirit ; six days corresponding to six suc- 
cessive states of spiritual elevation and illumination of the will 
and the understanding necessary to behold the Lord in his true 
and perfect Divinity. This elevation of the apostles was far 
above the conditions of time and space ; it was the influx of the 
Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom into their wills and un- 
derstandings, that enabled them to see the whole Word mani- 
fested, z-evealed and shining forth, in the Lord as the Lord, as 
the spiritual and Divine Sun, as Jehovah. The apostles cer- 
tainly did not behold the Lord on this occasion as a man, sub- 
ject to the conditions which belong to him in time and space. 

Saint John, when in the spirit on the Lord's day, had a simi- 
lar view of the Lord. Being in the spirit on the Lord's day 
was being in a state to behold the Lord, and he did behold 
him, and describes him, " His countenance as the sun shineth 
in his strength, and at whose feet he fell as dead." 

Mr. Tulk lays the foundation for this yiew of the doctrine of 
the Lord upon the general ground, that all objects seen either 
in the natural or the spiritual world, are beheld by the same 
law ; viz., the law of influx and correspondence ; there is not 
one law for the spiritual man, and a different law for the nat- 
ural man, The only difference between the two is occasioned 
by the difference pf degrees — the natural man receiving the 
same influx into the lower plane of the mind, which when so re- 
29 



338 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

ceived becomes objective to the senses. This view excludes 
the idea of a separate external world, and makes the external 
world to be the outbirth of the natural mind. In other words, 
that all objects seen in nature are produced by influx, and are 
correspondences of those things which exist in the mind, and 
become objective to the senses. These are in brief the ideas 
which I have received from a perusal of Mr. Tulk's book, very 
imperfectly, and I suppose confusedly expressed. But I have 
the greatest desire to ascertain and to have the benefit of your 
judgment upon these doctrines, particularly as the author gives 
very ample quotations from Swedenborg to support the truth 
of what he sets forth. 

"With very sincere regards, 

I am yours, 

Robert Elf. 



[The three following letters, from a correspondent 
who desires to remain unknown, are remarkable for 
their clear and logical statement, from his point of 
view, on one of the great questions which, with many, 
yet remains unsettled. We have endeavored to procure 
the answers from Prof. Bush, but could only obtain one, 
which is inserted here. Nevertheless, in what is here 
given will be found the chief points, pro and con, and 
the reader will be able to form a fair estimate of the 
controversy as thus far conducted. The letters are 
from a New Churchman of the West.] 

July \2th, 1853. 

Prof. Bush, — Dear Sir: — I take the liberty of writ- 
ing to you, considering an apology for so doing unnecessary. 
I have read your sermon on the " Priesthood and Kingship," 
and, as a professed searcher after truth, must express my 
thanks for the truthful and manly stand therein taken in de- 
fence of the doctrines of the Word and the teachings of Swe- 
denborg. 

The object of this letter is to offer a few suggestions upon 
the controverted question of the eternity or non-eternity of evil, 
with its punishments. I understand you to advocate (he doc- 
trine that evil with its punishments is eternal in this sense ; viz., 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 339 

that it never will come to an end. I differ with you in opin- 
ion, and will briefly give my reasons for so doing. 

The Word declares that an eternal damnation or destruction, 
an everlasting banishment from the presence of God, awaits 
evil in all its forms — the liar, the drunkard, the adulterer, the 
murderer, etc. Now I cannot understand how the declaration 
of an eternal damnation or destruction, an everlasting banish- 
ment from the presence of God — which necessarily presup- 
poses total annihilation — can, by any possible construction, be 
made to mean and convey the idea of the eternal, everlasting 
duration of evil in all its forms and with all its dire conse- 
quences. It strikes me very tbrcibly that the two ideas are the 
direct opposites of each other. I am led to believe that the 
teachings of the Word and the teachings of Swedenborg are 
uniformly consistent and in agreement with each other upon 
this question. We are taught that the character of the right- 
eous and the wicked, that good and evil, heaven and hell, life 
and death are the direct opposites of each other in their nature, 
progression, and destiny. So the one, as the recipient form of 
the Divine Love and Wisdom, is eternal, everlasting duration 
of existence ; and the other, as the recipient form of infernal 
life — the opposite of the Divine, is everlasting damnation, 
destruction, banishment from the presence of God, annihilation, 
non-existence. The one, as the recipient form of the Divine 
Life, necessarily partakes of the eternity of Jehovah-God. The 
other, as the abode of opposite principles, does not and never 
can partake of His eternity, but is given over to an everlasting 
damnation. 

That the advocate of the old theology, ignoring " the scien- 
tifics of the church " as the guide to the true interpretation of 
the Word, should, in the exercise of the mere sensuous thought, 
come to the conclusion that evil is eternal in its nature — that 
it partakes of the eternity of Jehovah, and therefore must en- 
dure as long as God himself endures, is not to be wondered at. 
Ignoring science, and confirmed in his view of " total deprav- 
ity," he cannot do otherwise than confound the sinner, the liar, 
drunkard, adulterer, murderer, etc, with the essential man, made 
and preserved in the image and likeness of God ; and conse- 
quently this view of the damnation of the sinner as an inverse 
progressive movement terminating in everlasting death, anni- 
hilation or non-existence, must, in his mind, conflict with the 
doctrine of man's immortality. But I apprehend that the 
reader of Swedenborg is placed in a position very different 



340 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

from that of the victim of the old theology, and that he may 
find this author clearing away all doubts and difficulties, uni- 
formly asserting the non-eternity of evil with its consequences, 
and at the same time freeing the question from the many ob- 
jections presented to the theories of the Universal ist. 

I will give generally what I understand to be the plain and 
positive teachings of 8 wedenborg, confirmatory, as they are, of 
the teachings of the Word upon this question. 

First, then : according to Swedenborg man is constituted of 
three degrees — an inmost, a mediate, and a natural with its ex- 
ternal organism. The inmost degree is the real essential man, 
being the first recipient form of celestial and spiritual life from 
the Lord. This inmost degree has ever been preserved in its 
original state of purity — that in which it was when it first came 
from the hands of God. With the devils in the lowest hell, as 
with the angels in the highest heaven, it remains a form imme- 
diately recipient of the Divine celestial and spiritual life. It is 
the habitation where the Lord himself dwells, and is consequent- 
ly uncontaminated with evil. It is the natural degree, with its 
will and understanding, that became inverted (perverted), caus- 
ing a corresponding inversion of the external physical organism. 
All men were created for and arc predestined to heaven, and 
none to hell as their final destiny. The Divine Iovq, from its 
very nature, could not do otherwise than will the eternal sal- 
vation of every rational creature of God. That which the Di- 
vine love wills, the Divine wisdom has provided and provides 
the means to accomplish ; and what the Divine love and wis- 
dom wills and provides for, the Divine power, in the end, unerr- 
ingly executes. 

Man was, necessarily, under the Divine order, gifted with 
" the freedom of the will." This freedom of the will, accord- 
ing to Swedenborg (and to common sense) is not a power pos- 
sessed by man to interfere Avith, set aside and defeat that des- 
tiny originally designed and provided for him ; but it is simply 
the power possessed by man to ultimate his affections and 
thoughts in corresponding actions, whether those affections and 
thoughts be good or evil. True freedom only exists in the ul- 
timation of good affections and thoughts. The ultimation of 
evil affections and thoughts constitutes infernal freedom. The 
ultimation of the good affections and thoughts, in corresponding 
good actions, is necessary to their perfection, and thus to the 
progression of the individual onward to a higher and higher 
state of perfection. If the affections and thoughts are evil, 



OF TKOF. GEORGE BUSH. 341 

eo as to be incapable of restraint, and ibus of re-formation, it 
then becomes necessary that they should be ultimated in cor- 
responding evil actions, that thus they may be brought to the 
light, and by exposure and punishments be corrected, and if 
possible re-formed, during the life of the body. 

If, after the death of the physical body, evil predominates 
with the spirit, he is vastated of all the good adhering to him, 
and associates with his like in the hells. The natural or exter- 
nal degree (as distinguished from the celestial and spiritual) 
being vastated of all its good, becomes now totally inverted, and 
by its reaction shuts out — excludes the inflowings of the Divine 
Life from the inmost degree. Willi respect to the natural or 
external degree, the law of order is now exclusively in its in- 
verse movement. There is no longer a possibility of its re-for- 
mation, which can take place only during the life of the body, 
which affords a material basis for the action of the Divine 
Life ; and this material basis is necessary to re-formation. 

The intellectual and voluntary, as formed with the natural 
or external degree during the life of the body, remains un- 
changed and forever unchangeable. The dominant life or rul- 
ing love forever remains such as it was at the death of the 
body. Its organic inversion is such that it cannot be retorted, 
so as to become a form truly recipient of the Divine inflowing 
life. Its nature remains forever unchanged. For it, re-forma- 
tion and re-generation are no longer possible. A. C. 4747. D. 
P. 318 r 319. H. H. 477. Its doom is everlasting damnation, 
death, destruction, annihilation, non-existence. 

According to Swedenborg, the term "eternity" is predicated 
of the state of a thing, and as consequent upon its state, of the 
time or period of its duration. In reference to duration, the 
term " eternity " simply means, so long as the state endures. In 
A. C. 6239, eternity is predicated of the state and time, or pe- 
riod of duration of the most ancient Church ; not that this- 
Church was never to come to an end ; but the period of its 
duration continued just so long as its celestial state continued. 
When it lost that state it perished. " What is infinite, in re- 
spect to duration is eternal." The Divine Love and Wisdom 
being, in their nature, infinite, therefore eternal existence 
is predicated of them, as also of all forms truly recipient of 
the Divine Life. They exist so long as the state endures. No 
form that remains truly recipient of Divine Life from the Lord 
can ever come to an end, for it partakes of the eternity of Je- 
hovah-God, and must be perfected to eternity. In H. D. 239, 
29* 



342 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

" All who go to hell remain there to eternity, and all who go 
to heaven remain there to eternity ;" not, of course, an eternity 
computed by calculations of time, for the idea of time entering 
into that of eternity destroys the idea of eternity; but the 
period of the duration of happiness or misery with those who 
go to heaven, and with those who go to hell, endures just so 
long as the state to which it refers itself as the cause of its 
existence. That the inverted form of those who have their 
abode in the hells, can never be re-formed, changed or retw'isted 
so as to become a form truly recipient of the Divine Life, and 
that they must remain in the hells so long as they remain 
clothed with this inverted form, is certain ; but does this evil 
state partake of the infinity, and consequently of the eternity, 
of Jehovah ? Is this inverted form, with its impure affections 
and thoughts, — this liai', adulterer, murderer, etc., — never to 
be destroyed, annihilated? The teachings of the "Word and of 
Swedenborg are uniformly consistent and in agreement upon 
this question. As to the effect of the punishments of the hells, 
see A. C. 824, 827, 828, 829, 304. Evil bears within itself 
the germ of its own destruction, and must necessarily come to 
an end. What the Divine Love has willed, and the Divine 
Wisdom has provided for, the Divine Power will execute. 
The freedom of the will was given to man, not to defeat, but 
unerringly to secure his destiny. It is the form through which 
the Divine order goes forth in its operations to save man. 
Even in the hells this freedom exists, for the ultimation of the 
infernal life is necessary to the ultimate destruction of the form 
which it animates. As in heaven the movement of the Divine 
Life in finite forms is onward towai'ds eternal life and perfec- 
tion, so in the hells the inverse movement of this infernal life 
is progressively towards the everlasting death and destruction 
of the form which it inhabits ; for heaven and hell are opposiics 
in their nature, in their progressive movement, and in their 
destiny. 

As the death of the physical body frees the spirit, so the 
death of the spiritual body frees the inmost degree, the real, 
essential man, from his prison-house in the hells. The Divine 
Wisdom has provided all the means necessary to his continued 
progression in eternal life, when thus freed from his prison- 
house. The fact of these means being beyond our knowledge 
is no proof that they are not provided. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 343 

[From a New Churchman of the West."] 

September 12, 1853. 

Prof. Bush. — Dear Sir: — I have received and read 
attentively, and with interest, the pages setting forth your 
controversy with Mr. Fcrnald upon the question of the endless 
duration of'tlie hells. Whilst fully admitting the force of your 
positions as against those assumed by Mr. Fernahl, I cannot 
see that they at all affect the truth or falsity of the position 
assumed in my former letter. 

The main point in which I find myself differing with you is 
in reference to the teachings of the new theology as to what 
constitutes the freedom of the will with man ; and this difference 
leads us to very opposite conclusions upon the question before 
us. I am satisfied that this idea that the freedom of the will 
involves a power possessed by man, really to oppose and finally 
defeat the first and final end of God in creation, is exclusively 
from the old theology, and that Swedenborg's idea and teach- 
ings are as stated in my former letter. I am satisfied that this 
whole idea of the endless duration of evil with its punishments 
has its origin and basis in the sensuous ideas of the old theology 
in reference to the character of God, the nature of evil and of 
the freedom of the will, and of eternity as being an endless ex- 
tension or duration of time. I am convinced that there is no 
authority for the idea in the writings of Swedenborg. Sweden- 
borg is not in conflict with the Word upon this question, and 
certainly neither the spirit nor letter of the Word sustains the 
doctrine of the endless duration of evil with its punishments. 
Eternal damnation, destruction, everlasting banishment from 
the presence of God, to evil in all its forms, does not mean its 
endless duration. I have never yet heard any advocate of the 
new theology attempt to prove from the Word, that evil par- 
takes of the eternity of Jehovah-God, and must therefore with 
its punishments endure as long as God himself endures. I can 
see no necessity for forcing a meaning upon Swedenborg which 
places him in conflict, not only with the Word, but with himself. 
You hold a prominent position among the honest and truthful 
opposers of this forced construction, as applied to the teachings 
of Swedenborg upon the question of the priesthood. You are 
also aware that upon the question of the resurrection of the 
Lord's body, Swedenborg is placed in the position of flatly 
contradicting himself; — upon one page asserting that the Lord 
arose from the sepulchre and ascended to heaven with the 



344 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

whole body glorified and made divine even as to the flesh and 
bones ; and upon another page asserting that the external body 
was entirely put off and rejected : whereas the whole difficulty 
has its origin with Swedenborg's interpreters, in neglecting in 
the outstart to ask and settle the simple question, " What is it 
that causes a man to be the son of his mother ? " And there is 
in reality no more difficulty upon this question of the endless 
duration of evil with its consequences, so far as the teachings 
of Swedenborg are concerned, than there is upon the two ques- 
tions above mentioned. 

I believe that there are hundreds, particularly among the 
Unitarian and Universalist sects, who are ready to embrace 
the ideas of the new theology as advanced by Swedenborg ; 
but they find what his warm admirers and friends assert to be 
his plain teachings upon this question of the endless duration 
of evil, to be so utterly at war with the teachings of the Word, 
and with the whole scope and tenor of his own teachings as to 
the character of God as the giver, and of man as the recipient 
of life, and with the true idea of the nature and character of uses 
in the Lord's kingdom, that they are brought to a stand. The 
question naturally arises, "If Swedenborg is here so contradic- 
tory — so much in conflict with himself and with the Word 
which we profess so much to venerate, what dependence is to 
be placed upon him ? Instead of the illuminated seer he pro- 
fesses to be, may he not in reality be but a mere dreamer of 
dreams ? " 

My own opinion is, that Swedenborg's state of illumination 
was such as he professes it to have been ; that his teachings 
are free from error upon all these great theological questions; 
that he is throughout consistent with himself, and in accord 
with the teachings of the Word ; and that there is no necessity 
whatever for forcing upon him a construction at war with his 
main leading ideas, and calculated to turn away reflecting minds 
from the investigation of his writings. 

That all these matters are to be investigated and rationally 
understood in order to be believed, is taught in A. R. 564. 

Respectfully, * * * 

\Answer to the above, by Prof Bush.~\ 

New York, October 3, 1853. 

Dear Sir : — You will see by my remarks on the cover of 
the October Repository, that I am still disposed to avoid a 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 345 

discussion in my pages of tlie subject of your letter. In com- 
ing to tills decision I am ready, at the same time, to do justice 
to the ability evinced in your treatment of the subject. But 
the argument does not satisfy me, nor would it satisfy, I am 
convinced, the mass of my readers. Some of the grounds of 
this dissatisfaction I have touched upon in my remarks above 
alluded to. 

The grand difficulty in the case is the want of sufficient data 
for a positive affirmation. For myself, I do not know that evil 
and the hells will not always continue, nor do I believe that 
any one else knows this ; for I cannot conceive what evidence 
he has access to that is not equally open to me. But I do not 
find it. You may think that 3011 have abundant grounds for a 
definite opinion on this head, and in this assurance I would not 
disturb you. But if you require me to fall in with your con- 
victions on the same grounds, I must demur, because I can by 
no means see the matter as you do. 

At the same time, I am far enough from holding the common 
orthodox ideas of hell and its miseries. I have no object to 
maintain the endless duration of future punishment in the sense 
ordinarily attached to the terms. But if you ask me in what 
sense I do hold to the eternity of evil and the hells, I must 
frankly say, I do not know. That is, I am conscious of being 
utterly unable to grasp the full and true import of eternity in 
reference to man's state and condition. For aught I know, it 
may involve some elements of which I have now no idea at all. 
But I will hold my mind open to receive whatever truth I am 
capable of receiving on the subject, whether in this world or 
the next. The notion conveyed by the term, both in the "Word 
and in Swedenborg, is mainly that of something stable, fixed, 
immutable ; and this, in reference to man's moral condition, is 
confirmed from the fact that at present I am wholly unable to 
conceive of the process by which a ruling evil love shall in the 
oilier world be converted into its opposite without violence done 
to man's free will. It is often done in this world, because here 
the will and the understanding are so far separated that refor- 
mation can take place. But in the other life we learn that the 
understanding becomes at length entirely merged in the will, 
and how then is it possible for a soul to be regenerated ? If 
you had both horses and carriage immersed in a deep mire or 
a deep stream, how are they to be extricated? But let the 
horses have their feet planted on terra jirma, and the carriage 
bids fair to be drawn out. 



346 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

Now you can easily say that this betrays a very imperfect 
knowledge of the true nature and functions of the human will, 
and of its freedom, which is very possible ; but it's of no con- 
sequence. You must show me how the first step upwards from 
an infernal to a celestial love is to be taken, consistently with 
human freedom, and then I shall be in a fair way to become a 
convert to your doctrine, but not before. Here is precisely the 
point where all such reasoning as yours fails. It does not solve 
this question of the first step freely taken. On the contrary, it 
somehow puts man's freedom in abeyance, and throws the re- 
sult upon the bare omnipotence of the Deity, than which nothing 
is more abhorrent from the genuine truth. It is just as contrary 
to the divine perfections to take a spirit out of heaven against 
his will and cast him into hell, as it is to take a spirit out of 
hell against his will and put him into heaven. On this head I 
do not perceive that your argument affords me any light. 

But I will not pursue the subject. I foresee that I shall 
have my position just as open to objection in your mind as it 
was before. If so, so be it. The charitable genius of the 
New Church allows its disciples to differ on matters of doctrine 
when the life is governed by the same divine laws. 
Very truly and respectfully yours, 

George Bush. 

[Reply to the above from a New Churchman of the West.~\ 

October 17, 1853. 

Prof. Busn. — Dear Sir: — Your letter of 3d Oct. came 
to the office during my absence from the city, and was not 
received until my return on the 14th. You must permit me 
again to trespass upon your time and patience with another 
letter. My object is not controversy, which is opposed to the 
genius of the New Theology, and only calculated to confirm each 
combatant in his own favorite theories. I wish a friendly inter- 
change of sentiment under the idea of uses. This the genius 
of the New Theology sanctions. ' 

From your letter and the notice upon the cover of the Oct. 
Repository, I judge that your mind would be favorably dis- 
posed towards the doctrine of a final restoration from all evil 
with its consequences, if you could be satisfied that the writ- 
ings of Swedenborg establish the truth of the three following 
propositions. 

1st. That with every man, the inmost celestial degree — 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 347 

the real, essential man has ever been and must forever remain 
pure, uneontaminated with evil. 2d. That the Divine Love has 
willed and predetermined, and from its very nature could not 
do otherwise than will the eternal salvation of every rational 
creature of God. 3d. That this theory of a final universal 
restoration offers no violence to the freedom or liberty of the 
will with man. And also further, that the incipient steps 
towards this final restoration from the hells can be pointed out. 
Upon all these positions the writings of Swedenborg are to my 
mind clear and explicit, establishing their truth. 

Upon the first proposition I request you to read attentively 
the whole of Part III. of Divine Love and Wisdom, noting 
particularly 254, that " the spiritual degree, because it is the 
form of heaven, admits nothing but things good, and truths which 
are from good." . . . Read the whole section and observe that the 
spiritual degree contracts and shuts out the inflowings of the evil 
and false from the natural degree with man. Also 2G3 — 270, 
where the same truth is asserted. Also 272 — that the two 
degrees, the natural and spiritual, are and remain (whilst the 
natural is unregenerate) in opposition, the recipient forms of 
opposite inflowings. Also 275 — same doctrine. Read also 
in connection with the above, 432, the last section of the vol- 
ume. I wrote my former letter without making at the time 
any particular reference to Swedenborg, but from recollection 
of previous impressions made upon my mind. I am rather 
surprised, upon particular reference, to find the position much 
more strongly established and sustained than I had anticipated. 
If Swedenborg throughout his whole writings, does not put an 
everlasting quietus upon the old orthodox doctrine of '■'total 
depravity," then I am incapable of understanding the scope 
of his theology. From 257, D. L. & W., I now think it is 
clear, that it is only the natural mind with its spiritual and 
natural substances, that can ever become contaminated with 
evil. And it is these inverted spiritual substances (with the 
natural substances forming the cutaneous envelops of the spirit- 
ual body) that with the wicked form the external organism, 
that in the hells must be destroyed — a damnation, destruction, 
or annihilation necessary to the release of the inmost celestial 
degree, with at least the interiors of the mediate spiritual, from 
its prison house in the hells. That the spiritual degree with 
man, including the inmost celestial with at least the interiors of 
the mediate spiritual, is preserved in the order and form of 
heaven, and remains a form recipient of no other inflowings 



348 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

than such as proceed from heaven, is, I am fully satisfied in 
my own mind, established by Swedenborg beyond controversy. 

Upon the second proposition — "That the Lord wills the 
salvation of all men," I am fully satisfied that I stand or fall 
with Swedenborg, whose language places the question in the 
strongest possible light in favor of the doctrine. 

Upon this point I request you to read Divine Providence — 
the chapter under the heading " That every man may be re- 
formed, and that there is no such thing as predestination," not- 
ing particularly 322, 323,324. Now the assertion — "That 
all are predestined to heaven and none to hell ; " " that every 
man is created to live to eternity in a state of happiness — 
is created to go to heaven ; " " that the Divine Love cannot 
do otherwise than desire it, and that the Divine Wisdom cannot 
do otherwise than provide for it ; " and again, at the close of 324, 
where it is said, " it is evident that his Divine Love cannot will 
otherwise than that man should go to heaven and there enjoy 
eternal beatitude; and also that his Divine Wisdom cannot 
do otherwise than provide for it ; " — I say this language must 
certainly mean something more than merely that the Lord is 
" witting that all men should come to repentance and be saved." 
If the language has any meaning at all, it must certainly mean 
that the Lord ardently desires the salvation of every creature, 
the work of his own hands ; that he " efficaciously ivills " 
every man's salvation, and has predestined — predetermined it. 
That this willing of the Divine Love, and provision of means 
by the Divine Wisdom, involves and carries with it the Divine 
Power to execute, you will not deny. I therefore place the 
doctrine of a final universal salvation, not exclusively " upon 
the bare omnipotence of the Deity," but upon the Divine at- 
tributes in their unitary operation — an operation, as I shall 
attempt to show, which offers no violence to man's liberty, but 
on the contrary makes use of that liberty as the very means 
by which this result is secured. 

This brings us to the third proposition. " Does this theory 
of a final universal salvation do violence to man's liberty ? " 
In the investigation of this point we must entirely abandon all 
reliance upon the teachings of the Old Theology, with its mys- 
ticisms and absurdities, and confine ourselves to a plain, rational, 
common-sense view of the question ; and for this common-sense 
view I can refer to no teachings so conclusive as those of Swe- 
denborg. In D. L. & W. 240, it is stated that man's rationality 
is the faculty to understand what is true and good. " The 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 349 

other faculty is that he can do truth and good : this faculty is 
called liberty, and is the faculty of the will." In D. L. & W. 
2G4 : "By rationality is meant the faculty of understanding 
truths and thence falses ; and goods and thence evils : and by 
liberty is meant the faculty of thinking, willing and doing them 
freely." It is everywhere asserted by Swedenborg that except 
in the exercise of these two faculties no man can be saved. 
The faculty to think, will, and do what is true and good is true 
liberty. This faculty in its perversion, causing man to think, 
will, and do what is false and evil, constitutes infernal liberty, 
such as exists in the hells. Thus Swedenborg entirely sets aside 
the idea of the Old Theology, that the freedom of the will in- 
volves a power possessed by man, really to oppose and finally 
defeat the will and original designs of God in creation and 
redemption; and asserts that this liberty is simply that power 
possessed by man to think and will what is true and good, and 
inversely what is evil and false — cherish such thoughts and 
desires, and ultimate them in corresponding good or evil actions. 
The necessity to every man's salvation, of the possession and 
exercise of this liberty is evident : for if his thoughts and 
desires are true and good, it is necessary that he should possess 
the power to cherish them and ultimate them in corresponding 
good actions, that thus they may be confirmed and strengthened, 
and the man " go on to perfection." If the thoughts and desires 
are false and evil, it is equally necessary that the man should 
have the power to cherish them and ultimate them in corres- 
ponding false and evil actions, that thus the hidden evil may 
be brought to the light, and by exposure and punishment be 
reformed, regenerated, and if possible extirpated during the 
life of the body : or, in the event that this cannot be done, and 
the predominance of the false and evil brings the individual into 
association with his like in the hells, it is then pre-eminently 
necessary that this infernal liberty should continue until the 
punishments suffered in the hells operate to the entire destruc- 
tion of that perverted oi'ganism which is the seat of these 
perverted thoughts and affections. It is of the Lord's mercy 
that this inverted organism be destroyed in the hells, that thus 
the real essential man may be released from every obstruction 
to his progression in and to eternal life. This, I think, fully 
answers the requirement you make of me to point out " and 
show how the first step upwards from an infernal to a celestial 
state is taken." There is no first and succeeding step upwards. 
There is no possibility of re-formation or re-generation in the 
30 



350 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

hells. This is possible only upon the material plane. In the 
hells the law of order is exclusively in its inverse movement ; 
and both the Word and Swedenborg assert that, for the sin- 
ner — this inverted organism which inverts and perverts all the 
inflowings of the Divine Life, there is no longer the possi- 
bility of salvation, but that an everlasting damnation, destruc- 
tion, banishment from the presence of God, annihilation, is its 
doom. 

Being satisfied upon these points, I think we may confidently 
trust to the Divine Wisdom to provide the means for the re- 
clothing of the essential man with an external organism, from 
the aromas which the intermediate state or world of spirits 
may furnish, and which may be brought into correspondence 
with the higher degrees, now released from the hells by the 
destruction of all that inverted environment which forced them 
to remain there as in their prison-house. 

From the language of Swedenborg referred to in the fore- 
going I can draw no other meaning than what I have given. 
Will you please give it a careful examination, and if you 
think I am wrong in my conclusions, give me your opinion as 
to what Swedenborg does teach in these passages. The state- 
ment in 322, D. P., '■'■That it is man's own faidt if he is not 
saved" does not, in my mind, at all conflict with my conclusions. 
It is but one of his modes of expression for that great truth 
which he everywhere teaches; — that evil has its origin and 
development in and belongs exclusively to the movement of the 
individual life, or man, as distinguished from the universal life, 
or God. Swedenborg is the only man who has ever opened 
up to the rational understanding, the origin, the nature, and final 
destiny of evil, showing and explaining the absolute necessity 
of its permission in the development of the individual life, and 
tracing it through all the intricate windings of that develop- 
ment, until the individual life (the collective man) shall be 
prepared to ascend from its present state of subjection to, to 
a state of uniiion with, the universal life, or God. This he opens 
up in his doctrine of the Divine Natural Humanity — the de- 
velopment of the series of redemption, as succeeding that of crea- 
tion. 

The "idea of eternity" was treated of in my former letter. 
It is predicated of the state of a thing, and only of the period 
of its duration as dependent upon its state. It is only that 
which is infinite that with respect to duration is eternal. Evil 
is not infinite — does not partake of "the infinity of Jehovah- 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 351 

. God. It is therefore not eternal — does not partake of his 
eternity. 

I wish the benefit of your investigations and opinions on this 
subject, having, in addition to your acknowleged ability, every 
confidence in your theological honesty and sincerity of purpose 
— a confidence which I can extend to but few of the clergy in 
their clerical capacity. I believe the whole body of the priest- 
hood, as such, and as now constituted (both Old Church and 
New Church,) to be in inverted order and consequently a re- 
cipient form of corresponding influx. I think your sermon on 
the priesthood may give origin to some correct idea as to how 
the church of the New Jerusalem is yet to be established upon 
earth. It may not be improper to allude to my own Sweden- 
borgian experience. Most persons say they had great difficul- 
ties in the reception of Swedenborg' s doctrines. I know noth- 
ing about such difficulties. Up to the years '41 or '42, 1 had no 
knowledge of the existence of his writings. I believe that I 
had never heard the name, and knew not that such a man had 
ever lived. I was, about that time, in the office of a casual ac- 
quaintance upon the frontier settlements, and accidentally (prov- 
identially) picked up a book, labeled " Conjugial Love." I im- 
mediately noticed an uneasiness on the part of the owner of the 
book, who was standing by, with an effort to divert my attention 
from it. This excited my curiosity, and wondering what any 
man could find to fill so large a book with upon such a subject, 
I opened it and turned over the pages to the close of the book, 
reading the propositions heading each section. Every proposi- 
tion, as I read them, from the first to the last, forcibly presented 
itself to my mind as embodying the very truth of heaven. 
From that day to this I have never come across a position 
assumed by Swedenborg that has not appeared to me to be 
perfectly rational and correct. I have no hesitancy in believ- 
ing that he received his truths from the Lord alone, and not even 
from an angel. I was at first disposed to believe with others, 
that he taught the doctrine of an eternal damnation to the 
wicked, as that doctrine is commonly received : but finding 
this doctrine in such direct conflict — so utterly at war with all his 
other teachings, I was induced to search for some other inter- 
pretation of his idea as conveyed in his writings, and soon dis- 
covered that the idea was not from Swedenborg, but in my own 
mind, from a proprium inherited from a long line of Calvinistic 
ancestry. 

I should be pleased to continue a friendly correspondence, 



352 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

should your inclinations and duties permit. Please answer this 
letter, even should your inclinations lead you to decline a further 
correspondence. Very truly and respectfully, 

Your friend, * * * 

[From James A. Austin.'] 

Richmond, Va., 18th January, 1854. 

Prof. George Busn. — Bear Sir : — It is truly gratifying, 
to me at least, to see by the Repository, in the many letters 
and articles therein, the true idea of churches in particular, 
their existence in individuals, their liberty, their freedom and 
willingness to come forward in the magazine and openly declare 
themselves in the faces of an insatiate priesthood in the so- 
called New Church. The declaration that every man is a 
priest and king, the advocacy of household worship, the admin- 
inistrations thus of the ordinances of baptism of water, and of 
bread and wine in the sacraments ; — these are admirable. "We 
have worship on Sundays, and the sacrament once in three 
months ; and also should baptize our children if it had not 
been already done. If New Churchmen, where they are suf- 
ficiently numerous and able, would build for themselves a plain 
and convenient house for public worship, to be free to all people, 
with seats so arranged that all could see each other, — if, when 
so assembled at the time, they would make a request of any 
suitable one, to step into a sort of tribune, open the Word and 
read, verse about with the audience, one chapter of the Old Tes- 
tament, one of the Psalms, and one chapter of the New Testa- 
ment, repeat with the people the Lord's prayer, read one or 
two chants, to be sung by all who are able and willing, this 
would be worship by all who would co-operate ; and by reading 
the Word, they would have consociation with angels and con- 
junction with the Lord, which, according to the sincerity of the 
people and the purity of their hearts, would be a sacrament of 
bread and wine to the nourishment of their souls. After this the 
leader should leave the tribune, and any one among the audience 
should be requested to come forward into it and read a short 
paper often minutes or so in length, or give the internal sense 
of any passage in the Word that he chooses, with its applica- 
tion to life, men, and things. It should be understood and in- 
sisted upon that no one should be allowed to be prosy, or impose 
himself too frequently upon the Church in that way. This 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 353 

course, after people became used to it, would become so de- 
iightful to all — everyone almost participating in a work which 
was found to interest the welfare and happiness of all — that 
time would be changed into eternity, or in other words state. 
Baptism and the sacrament could be administered by any one 
or more when the period arrived for it. I shall inquire for 
such associations and experiences after I leave this world, and 
shall be disappointed if I cannot find true New Churchmen 
engaged thus in the heavens of the Americans. If I could 
meet with such on this earth, it would delight me much to par- 
ticipate with them here. ***** 
Accept my love. James A. Austin. 



[From A. W. Paine, Esq.'] 

Bang ok, Me., Jan. 10, 1847. 

Rev. Mr. Bush. — Dear Sir: — Since I last wrote you, you 
have published your " Reasons," and also your " Mesmer and 
Swedenborg." For both these works, I, as one humble reader, 
have many thanks to bestow upon you. The first I regard as 
a very useful work, as giving an interesting view in one direc- 
tion of the peculiarly rich and valuable truths which the New 
Church has bestowed upon the world. The "reasons" which 
another receiver would give would probably be so different, 
and at the same time equally true, as to appear to a general 
reader quite another thing. Just as the many beholders of 
a beautiful and extensive temple would all, in their descriptions, 
differ widely in their respective views, depending not only upon 
the distinctive character of their minds, but also upon the differ- 
ent standpoints which ihey should occupy as beholders. In con- 
nection with this subject, and following perhaps the views al- 
ready advanced, I cannot help expressing the wish that you or 
some other person would give the world a work illustrative of 
the doctrines and belief of the New Church, as distinctive from 
the Old, giving a bird's-eye view of the many items of interest, 
each in a chapter by itseltj and supported by an illustration of 
each, sufficiently long to make the subject plain without being 
tedious. A work perhaps of the size of "Mesmer and Swe- 
denborg " would be sufficient to embrace the design. We want 
such a work as will answer the oft-asked question, " What do 
Swedenborgians believe?" We now have no work to put into 
30* 



354 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

the hands of such an interrogator, and the want is a great 
one. 

Your " Mesmer and Swedenhorg " I was glad to see, as the 
subject of the work has been one in which I have felt much in- 
terest, and to which I have devoted some considerable time for 
years past. The mental philosophy of the New Church I con- 
sider as destined soon to overthrow all other systems, or rather 
to show them no systems at all. Indeed, what has the philosophy 
of the day as yet done for man ? I speak what I believe when 
I say that not one of all the phenomena of the mind has this 
philosophy been able to illustrate or explain. A dream is as 
much a mystery in the old philosophy as is mesmerism, or any 
other fact, however newly discovered. The same is true of all 
the other common phenomena or exercises of mind heretofore 
known to exist. Philosophy has as yet done little more than 
gather facts and data from which a new philosophy may be 
evolved or demonstrated. It has been watching the move- 
ments long traced and manifested on the dial's face, and calcu- 
lated their changes and relations ; but the great power behind 
the plane of motion, the machinery which moves the whole, has 
been thus far secret and concealed. Philosophy thus far, with 
all its aids, has failed to evolve a single principle in explana- 
tion of the great facts which it has had presented for examina- 
tion. In the writings of our revered author, however, the dial 
face has been made transparent, and the beholder is now per- 
mitted to see the motion within producing the acts without. 
The heretofore secret springs and wheels are now seen in their 
workings, and mind equally with matter is now made apparent 
in its internal workings and causes. 

Any attempt to bring a knowledge of this new light to the 
world I hail as a praiseworthy act, as a part execution of the 
great duty which the New Church owes to the Old. "We are 
in fact quasi trustees for the benefit of the old church, and are 
culpable if we do not, to the extent of our ability, respectively 
perform the trust thus imposed upon us. Your new work I re- 
gard as a part performance of this great duty which we owe, 
and right glad am I to greet it and give it success. I cannot 
but believe that it will do much good in advancing a knowledge 
of the truth, especially in the direction towards which it points. 
The citations from Swedenhorg which you make, seem fully to 
confirm and support the positions advanced, and the facts as 
presented in the Mesmeric state. To any candid reader the 
confirmation must api>ear striking and conclusive. The result 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 355 

must, I am assured, be favorable ; for bow can the dissemination 
of truth be otherwise than favorable at this day? You have 
certainly reason to be pleased at the reception which your work 
has received, for if it did not contain a good degree of truth, the 
"devil" would'not be so active in opposing and misrepresenting 
it. This old gentleman is too wise and shrewd to oppose his 
peculiar element, — falsity, — or belie his own progeny. Truth 
always draws him out into the field, armed cap-a-pie, viz., with 
his corps of editors and correspondents, " religious " newspapers 
and magazines. Thus it has been, " is, and ever will be, world 
without end." 

Your book, however, is but the beginning, a mere introduc- 
tion to an exposition of New Church Philosophy. All the 
phenomena of the mind are to be explained and illustrated by 
the new light of the church. Dreams, impressions, forewarn- 
ing*, visions, antipathies, sympathies, " revivals," the scenes of 
somnambulism, insanity, and all other kindred phenomena, are 
all referable to the same great laws in action, and are yet to be 
explained to the world by their aid. An examination of these 
phenomena in the light of the New Church, their unity and 
identity as to cause, are all matters of peculiar interest. The 
subject early excited my attention, several years ago, and has 
ever been a pleasing study to me. It is, however, a subject 
which has too little occupied the minds of New Churchmen 
thus far, and hence I am glad to see you in the field, with a 
determination to see it cleared, so manfully exhibited. 

Yours truly, A. W. Paine. 

{From Rev. B. F. Barrett'] 

Chicago, September 27, 1852. 

Dear Br. Bush. — Humble as this offering is, you will ac- 
cept it as a sincere acknowledgment of the obligation under 
which, we conceive, the signal ability with which you have con- 
ducted the New Church Repository from the time of its com- 
mencement, has placed all the genuine friends of the Church in 
our country, to sustain that paper, and sustain you in that 
sphere of usefulness which you have shown yourself so well 
qualified to fill. We would not have you suppose that we agree 
entirely with every sentiment which you have uttered in the 
pages of the Repository; indeed, Ave should consider it no com- 
pliment to you or your paper if we could say this. We do not 



356 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

want the conductor of a periodical like yours always to speak 
our sentiments. We much -prefer that he would utter senti- 
ments, now and then, from which we are constrained to differ, 
provided he does it in a kind and Christian manner, and evinces 
sincerity and a disposition to obey God rather than men. It is 
the free, independent, and fearless manner in which the Reposi- 
tory has ever spoken — the sweet notes of charity, too, ever 
blending in its tones — that has especially commanded our ad- 
miration ; and never more did it win our regard than when it 
took up and discussed with such signal ability, and in such ad- 
mirable spirit, the difficult and much-vexed question of Amer- 
ican slavery. We humbly trust that he who has given you 
courage and strength to dare and do what has been done, and 
done so nobly, too, will not desert you now, nor suffer your 
sphere of usefulness to be in any way abridged. We should 
esteem it a great misfortune to the Church to have your paper 
— the only truly independent and able organ of the New 
Church in our country — be compelled to stop for lack of 
support. * ******* 

Truly and affectionately, your friend, 

B. F. Barrett. 

{From W. IT. Wynn.~] 
Hamilton, Butler Co., Ohio, April, 1857. 

Dear Brother Bush, — I have received your excellent 
work, and it has entirely cleared up all the difficulties which I 
formerly imagined were inseparable in connection with your 
position concerning the " ministry." I see now, in a light I 
never saw before, that charily is the essence of the church, and 
must give origin to a spontaneous form of ecclesiastical govern- 
ment in accordance with the direction of this " gift of the spirit." 
The primitive idea of a "ministry in the church entirely sub- 
ordinate to brotherly love," which you have so thoroughly and 
unanswerably developed in this book, and which fully embodies 
your long misunderstood and misrepresented theory of Church 
polity, cannot fail, it seems to me, to operate a speedy revolu- 
tion On all forms of clerical hierarchy both in Old and New 
Church organizations. Accept the compliment, therefore, due 
a use so exalted as this book will subserve. The theory of 
a " Ministry in the Church entirely subordinate to Brotherly 
Love," is the most valuable contribution to this department of 
Church literature that has been made in modern times. 

Yours affectionately, W. II. Wynn. 



OF PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 357 

[From Otis Clapp, Esq.'] 

Boston, Jan. 27, 1852. 

Prop. Bush. — Dear Sir : — I suppose you are aware of the 
practice of lay preaching in England. It has long seemed to 
me important to have it introduced here, and the only reason 
why it has not been, as I think, is because such stringent ideas 
of order have been impressed upon the receivers, that they have 
not felt in freedom to attempt it. I know of cases in point. 

I was talking the other day with Mr. John Birchwood, of 
Manchester, on the subject, and he not only explained the mode 
of proceeding and its etfects, but showed me some fifteen " Ar- 
rangements " similar to the one enclosed. The idea struck me, 
and I wrote a short article which I send you for the Repository, 
if you see fit to use it. 

If we can encourage receivers to prepare themselves care- 
fully for this use, it would do them and the public a service ; 
and last, though not least, take some wind out of the sails of the 
hierarchy. We have, probably, twenty men in Boston, that 
could prepare themselves to present the doctrines creditably, if 
they could be encouraged to feel that it was " orderly." 

In haste, yours, &c. Otis Clapp. 

[From Thomas Wayland.~\ 

Warrenton, Geo., Dec. 15, 1847. 

My dear Sir. — * * * It was very gratifying to me to be 
favored with your portrait, as I had previously no conception of 
your person : to be sure it is not of much consequence, as you 
delightfully reason in your sermon on Heaven, which I have 
this moment finished. I feel how just is your view of " that 
spiritual consanguinity in which all worldly relationships and 
affinities are swallowed up." I am not sure, however, whether 
the tabernacle in which our spirits dwell is sufficiently rever- 
enced, and whether, in the progress of man, we shall not grow 
into a more habitual veneration for the visible material form 
of humanity. Carlyle has a good deal of this idea in some of 
his writings, and uses the noli me tangere of Louis Quatorze (I 
think), to one who would too familiarly touch him, as applicable 
to common every-day anthropomorphism. To be sure, we are 
so familiar with the once " human face divine," in a state of 
alienation from Heaven, and hence from true friendship and 



358 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

love, that we see it with too little emotion, when one reflects 
that in these clay tenements are spirits destined for an eternal 
world. I sometimes think that the time will come when the 
negro race will look beautiful and heavenly, and when the life 
of society as one sees it in the avocations of commerce and 
the professions, will be altogether derived from within instead 
of without, and then how transformed to a paradise will be this 
world ! This view gives force to the prayer, " Thy will be done 
on earth as it is in heaven." 

To return. You will allow me to say, in friendship and 
truth, not in flattery, — for I suppose we are both above that, 
— that your portrait is just what I would wish it to be. The 
forehead is absolutely Titanic. The nose is long enough to sat- 
isfy Napoleon's belief in men with long noses, and stops just 
at the right place for significance, beauty, andhumor. The eye 
is beautifully serene, and the mouth well formed for ore ro- 
tundo eloquence. I sincerly hope the prototype will be long 
spared to adorn and instruct the Church and mankind. I don't 
know one in all the world that could be so little spared from 
the work that has to be promptly done and well done. 

With sincere prayer for your well-being, I subscribe myself, 
Very truly yours, Thomas AVayland. 

[From Thomas Wayland.~\ 

Marietta, Geo., Dec. 17, 1853. 

Prof. Bush. — Dear Sir: * * * We shall never have the 
priestly function general in parents until the heresy of sacerdo- 
tal caste is broken up. I incline to the opinion that society is 
hastening to the patriarchal state. I don't mean with flocks 
and camels exactly, but the domicil of a holy conjugial being, 
the only external bethel free from abuse, the nursery of society 
and of heaven. The father himself may be his own priest to 
baptize and administer the sacrament. I should have no scru- 
ple to administer either in my own family. I am opposed to 
all endowments, not only of churches, but of state institutions, 
for any purpose but that of self-defence ; e.g., West Point. It 
seems paradoxical, but I think there would be a more widely 
diffused education, and a hundred times better in quality, if 
there were no colleges at all. Why have state institutions for 
education any more than for calico or cotton ? It is an infringe- 
ment of the principle of free trade, for education is a marketa- 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 359 

ble commodity. I am prepared to show, if free trade be right, 
that schools should be free in the same sense ; i.e., they should 
be open to the most unrestricted competition, just like every 
thing else. Very truly yours, 

Thomas Watland. 



\From Rev. A. Haworth, England.'] 

Manchester, January 14, 1848. 

Dear Sir and Brother : — * * * With respect to your 
visiting England, I suppose that this question will now, of 
course, have to lay over. * * * However, when you feel at 
any time inclined to come over, you will be most cordially re- 
ceived in this country, and I shall be happy to correspond with 
you about it previously, and make arrangements, unless you 
prefer to come in some other way than according to the propo- 
sitions which my letter contained. * * * With respect to the 
prostration of things in this country, it is true that they have 
been very bad ; but as a tale never loses any thing by telling, 
but gains a great deal, so do newspaper statements make things 
seem no better, but a good deal worse, when describing the 
evils existing in England. Our own newspapers, even in the 
best of times, are always croaking, and your papers repeat their 
statements with interest. Things are now taking a turn, and 

we look for considerable improvement by and by. 

* * * * ' * * 

You speak of commencing a periodical, and I learn from 
Cincinnati that you are doing so under very favorable aus- 
pices. I rejoice to hear this. * * * There is wanted, in 
America, a periodical which shall embrace a greater range of 
subjects, and carry out more enlarged views than is done by 
the Boston magazine. We require to become less narrow, 
clannish, and sectarian than we are in the New Church, and 
perhaps you will be able, in the work you propose, to give a 
greater expansion to our principles, and unite them more with 
the good and the true in philosophy, science, and literature, 
than has yet been done. * * * * 

Suffer me to notice one particular, though it be hardly worth 
noticing. You style me " reverend." Now I am not, even 
according to New Church rules and usages, entitled to this, 
because I am not an ordained minister ; and more than this, I 
have a great objection. to the use of such a word to any preacher 



3G0 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

in the New Church. It seems to me a relict of popery, and 
should be disused. What reverence can any one desire, who 
feels himself the least of all and the remnant of all? I 
should like, and I had intended, indeed, to dilate a little on this 
subject — on honors, privileges, and powers generally, both in 
the priesthood and in the Church ; but I feel that now it 
would lead me too far. I may say, and would like to say to 
you, a good deal on such subjects, for I believe you arc greatly 
opposed to what are called High Church principles, and I shall, 
perhaps, trouble you in this way another time. 

We have had Mr. Emerson lecturing here, and he had the 
same " representative men " for his subjects that he had at 
Boston. Swedenborg was therefore one of them. His lecture, 
although there was a good deal of patching about it (for I was 
able to see it well), seemed to be substantially the same as that 
which you answered at Boston. He skipped over a portion 
of what he had written, turned back sometimes, hesitated, and 
showed some embarrassment, — indeed he once made a full 
stop, and made a sort of apology, obscurely intimating that he 
was not much an fait in the matter of Emanuel Swedenborg's 
theology, correspondences, etc , etc. He evidently felt that he 
must have some scrutinizing minds before him, wdio would de- 
tect his mistakes. He repeated that offensive clause about 
man being always on the way upward to all that is good and 
true, — even in brothels and on the gibbet. This brought him 
into some disfavor, and some censure from pulpits and from the 
press. Our Mr. Smithson delivered two or three lectures, 
cleverly answering some of Emerson's objections and principles. 
Still Mr. Emerson said so much that was laudatory in many 
ways of Emanuel Swedenborg, that we were pleased — much 
pleased with his lecture as a wdiole. He is lecturing in vari- 
ous other prominent places. Some others, not of the Church, 
have been recently lecturing in a similar way about Emanuel 
Swedenborg, and we think they are by such means doing good. 
* * * ***** 

Believe me, dear sir and brother, 

Yours very truly and respectfully, 

A. Ha worth. 

[From Rev. A. E. Ford.'] 

Paris, France, July 19, 1855. 
Dear Professor : — * * * The person who interests me 
most here, is Dr. Poirsin, a young man still. He has culti- 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 361 

vated his profession on New Church principles, and more than 
any New Church physician that I know of, has originated medi- 
cal views and modes of treatment in accordance with those prin- 
ciples. I wish I had time to give you an outline of his ideas. If 
I ever succeed in getting any thing off for the Repository, I do 
not think of any thing more interesting or more useful to let your 
readers know about. He was suddenly, and one might almost 
say, miraculously cured, while very far gone, apparently in con- 
sumption. He fell asleep i/ a state of exhaustion from violent 
temptations, and saw the Lord, in a dream, through an opening 
in the clouds, encompassed with unspeakable splendor. These 
clouds appeared to form His garments ; and, on his thinking 
that if he could only touch them he might be healed, they 
descended within his reach, he clasped them in his hands and 
felt an electrical thrill pervade all his frame ; he awoke, entirely 
well, able to speak for any length of time, to take long walks, 
to carry a burden : whereas, he had been spitting blood, could 
only utter a few words at a time, and was exhausted by the 
shortest walk. It is his intention to publish his discoveries in 
good time. 

# * * * , * * 

I remain your friend and brother in the New Church, 

Alfred E. Ford. 

[From Thomas F. Shewell.'] 

Ph<enixville, Pa., Nov. 2, 1855. 

Rev. Geo. Busn, Brooklyn, — My dear Sir : * * * 
Have you noticed, as one among the many outward confirma- 
tions of Swedenborg's assertions concerning judgments in the 
spiritual world, and their efforts in the natural world, the sin- 
gular coincidence of wars waged for human liberty, with the 
periods of " about thirty years, which he assigns as the extent 
between these judgments ? " Dating from 1757, we have 1787, 
1817, 1847, which very nearly coincide with marked events in 
human history. 

Not to dilate on this subject, I only wish to call your own at- 
tention to the fact, as corroborative of those truths we mutually 
find pleasure in- A public statement of it might, to any other 
than New Church receivers, have the appearance of claiming 
for Qur ft illumined scribe" the character of a prophet ; whereas 

31 



362 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

these effects can be nothing else than the natural result at- 
tending the descent of the New Jerusalem. * * 

I regret to see by the advertisement on the cover of the 
Repository, that your subscribers do not seem to appreciate the 
true value of their monthly visitor, and trust that the new year 
will show an amendment in this particular. I presume that 
there is not one of these delinquents but would consider him- 
self recreant to his faith if he did not pay a laborer for sawing 
his wood, and yet he seems indifferent to the claims of him 
who furnishes the fuel to warm his heart and enlighten his un- 
derstanding. Very truly yours, 

Thos. F. Shewell. 

[From V. JKicrulff, West Indies.'] 

St. Thomas, June 5, 1852. 

Prof. Bush, — My dear Sir : — Do you know that I think 
the project you mention, of taking up the matter of abolition of 
Slavery, is an important one at this juncture? Slavery is cer- 
tainly most lamentable ; thirty-five years' experience has taught 



me so. 



* ****** 



Mr. De Charms' treatise on the subject of Emancipation of 
the American Slaves is, so far, well written ; but it proves a 
great want of knowledge on the subject. He grants that their 
emancipation is far oft', and speaks of the reformation neces- 
sary for the social order of the whites. All that is a good 
thing, as far as it goes ; but it does nothing in the mean while to 
alleviate the great suffering of the millions ; it does nothing to 
improve and prepare their condition. When we have seen 
and sympathize with the suffering negro, we feel there is a loud 
call for immediate relief; but there are preliminary steps to be 
attempted and secured, before the question of emancipation is 
brought on the carpet. My " motto," therefore, when I was 
South in 1851, was not emancipation, but amelioration. This, 
all well-disposed men I met with, fully agreed to. They felt I 
was right, and that it would vastly improve the state of the 
blacks and be a benefit for the country at large. * * * Before 
1837, no court in the English colonies ever gave justice to a 
Hack man when he complained against Ms master. Read Dr. 
Madden, special magistrate for the island of Jamaica, during 
the transition from slavery to apprenticeship, 2d vol., p. 77. 
What he says I have often 'thought is the case. The prepara- 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. SC3 

fcions for liberation of the negroes must be an amelioration of 
their degraded condition ; laws to protect them in every re- 
spect against cruelty, injustice, and sufferings. In these points 
the Southerners will yield ; in fact, many lament to see some 
bad neighbors having the liberty to ill-treat the negroes. To 
regulate proper food, clothing, and attention in sickness and old 
age ; care to their young children also, and proper and com- 
fortable houses (for their houses are in many places utterly 
unfit) where, in the cold spells which are felt to be so painful 
to those avIio all along are used to a mild climate, they may be 
able to shield themselves, and especially the young children, 
the aged, and sick ; to be duly provided with blankets, etc., — 
this is most seriously needed in some of the Southern States, 
and I doubt that many think of this. In Florida, the food al- 
lowed consists of a peck or two of corn tin-own carelessly to 
them ; and if the negroes have small children to feed, they 
must look for them as they can when they want any thing 
beyond corn. Some estates occasionally give them also a little 
salt. * * * I can never believe that Mr. De Charms' views 
ever will be realized, — that the white population should first 
be regenerated, before they emancipate; no, I rather think it 
would first become extinct. I therefore reject such a theory, 
and never wait for emancipation at such a hopeless time ; but 
rather fear it will cause a crush for which the South, as in the 
days of Noe, are not prepared nor think possible. But still 
they eat and drink, buy and sell, and it will come on them un- 
awares, unless a merciful Providence otherwise prepares means 
for emancipation. 

I am strongly of opinion that the moderate, rational, and 
elevated view which the New Chui'ch doctrines may take of 
the question of abolition, will, when handled with due force, be 
irresistible in its effect on the public mind, from east to west. 
They will sow a seed which will rear a forest to overshadow 
all the bigoted arguments which can be raised against it, either 
by the abolitionist or anti-abolitionist, and produce a salutary 
effect not to be questioned. Your labors in that direction, I 
think, will prove very useful to the New Church. They will 
bring the New Church principles not only more generally to 
light, but also raise their estimation thi'oughout America and 
Europe. I admire your views — the little I have seen of them 
in the Repository ; and feel you will be of some use to the lib- 
eration of the millions. I am myself of opinion that no true N. 
Churchman can be silent to so great an evil. I recollect Judge 



364 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

Linberg's telling me, in 1828, that the fall of Babylon, in the 
spirit world, would speedily affect slavery in its ultimates, as it 
is a spiritual slavery in which that Church loves to enjoy its 
dominion, and from which flows in ultimates the trading in 
human beings. And as its fall has decidedly taken place in the 
spirit world, it would of necessity show its corresponding fall in 
the natural world. And we actually experienced, a few years 
after, the abolition of eight hundred thousand human slaves in 
the British Colonies. 

The blacks are fallen deeply, and when emancipated, make 
a horrid race of men ; but it cannot be expected better ; they 
recover speedily when order is somewhat established by the 
influence of the whites. I think fifteen years' abolition in Ja- 
maica has done much to prove this. 
* * * ****♦ 

Yours, very sincerely and affectionately, 

V. KlERULFF. 



LETTERS MISCELLANEOUS 

FROM PROF. BUSH." 



[The following four letters of Prof. Bush to Dr. Leon- 
ard Woods, of Andover, Mass., will derive an interest 
from their address and occasion.] 

New York, Sept. 30, 1844. 

Rev. Dr. Woods. — Dear Sir : — I have concluded to 
send you the preface to my forthcoming work, in advance of 
the publication of the whole, which will be delayed two or three 
weeks, in order to make sure of a copyright in England. 

This preface I wish you very much to read, as it is written 
on the ad conciliandum principle, in oi'der to secure fair dealing 
to the book itself. I am conscious of having put so much at 
stake in the position which I have assumed, that my demand 
for "righteous judgment" cannot be otherwise than just. I 
am sure that any little ability I may have for vindicating or 
illustrating revealed truth, ought not to be made hereafter " of 
none avail " by the force of mere prejudice. Reasons have a 
right to be met by reasons, and if all theologians had the same 
enlarged and liberal sentiments that I have ever seen in you, 
I should have little ground for fear. 

Some of the closing remarks were written after my recent 
conversation with you, and in especial reference to the hints 
you then threw out. I had extended my observations to greater 
length, but was obliged to curtail them for want of space. As 
they are, they will of course go for what they are worth. I 
am still strong in the belief that the Resurrection is the result 
of natural law, and I cannot conceive that you can hold any 
other view of it, except upon the ground that God has either 
said or implied that he will effect it in some other mode. 
31* 



366 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

"When the evidence of this is produced, I shall not fail to give 
it its due weight. 

When you receive the volume, I shall venture to recommend 
to your special attention the chapter on Christ's delivering up 
the kingdom, which itself, if well founded, presents a very im- 
portant view of Scripture truth. 

If you think it would he well received, I should he glad to 
have the preface put into Prof. Stuart's hands, who would cer- 
tainly he interested in it coming from any other source. 
Very respectfully and filially yours, 

George Bush. 



New York, Aug. 20, 1840. 

Dr. "Woods. — Rev. and dear Sir : — I have given a hasty 
first perusal to your pamphlet on Swedenborgianism. For the 
kind and brotherly tone in which you allude to me, I am sin- 
cerely grateful. It is obvious that you view me " rather in 
sorrow than in anger," as you probably do my brethren in the 
faith. In their name, as well as my own, I thank you that 
no bitterness appears in the discussion. You evidently write 
with a supreme regard to truth. The evidence of Swedenborg's 
claims does not satisfy you, and you frankly tell us why. 

Yet you will not be surprised at the intimation that we shall 
probably remain unconvinced by your arguments, while we are 
ready to admit that your work will undoubtedly prevent many 
minds from being convinced by ours. "We see that it is very 
easy to give a repulsive air to the doctrines and disclosures in 
question, when at the same time the paramount considerations 
which weigh with us are not touched. Indeed, this is so easy, 
that if we had not strong confidence that the doctrines of Swe- 
denborg were the truth of God, we should despair of their 
gaining much ground in the world. 

As I have already replied beforehand to much of your lec- 
ture, in my "Statement of Reasons," just published, I shall 
have comparatively little to say at present. But a few remarks 
suggest themselves. 

1. I cannot admit that you are fairly authorized to say that 
Swedenborg rejects any portion of the canon. He does indeed 
distinguish between different degrees of inspiration, mainlain- 
ing that the Word, strictly so-called, was penned under a higher 
afflatus than the other portions. This he is at liberty to assume, 
provided he can satisfy us that he was empowered to make the 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 367 

distinction. We are satisfied on this head, but we do not read 
in this an exclusion of any book from its place in the Bible. 
If I deny the car to be the eye, I do not thereby eject it from 
the body. But I have been pretty full on this point in the 
" Reasons." I will only say, that after all that has been writ- 
ten by Prof. Stuart and others, I regard the question of the 
" canonicity" of the sacred books as historically the most com- 
plicated and difficult question in all theology. The Christian 
world is but little aware how the matter really stands. 

2. In appealing to consciousness and reason for the truth of 
Swedenborg's claims, it is not pretended that we recognize in- 
tuitively the truth of all he has said — much less the truth 
of all his spiritual intrepretations. What we mean is, that 
we perceive the truth of certain fundamental principles of 
psychology, etc., on which they ultimately rest, and that the 
admission of these principles draws after it the admission 
of what he has affirmed respecting the other world and the 
character of the Word. Thus, for instance, we admit the 
principle of correspondence, and admitting this, we feel con- 
strained to admit Ids applications of it even when we have 
not au intellectual perception of their justness in particular 
cases. We receive them because we believe he gives evidence 
of being qualified to make them. This is the ground of our 
assent to the expositions he has given of Genesis, Exodus, etc. 
So the admission that Love is the parent of Thought warrants 
a world of other admissions in the system. 

3. It is not averred that Swedenborg's revelations were to 
produce the great political and moral revolutions witnessed 
since 1757, but the things revealed were the true causes, and 
would have produced the effects at any rate. 

4. You observe, p. 59, " I feel myself under no obligations 
to account for the state of mind which Swedenborg had." Buf, 
under favor, this is the very thing, my dear sir, of all others, to 
be accounted for. It is on this " state of mind " that we found 
all our belief in his revelations. We contend that this state 
cannot be accounted for on any other supposition than that it 
was supernaturally brought about. Consequently, as we do not 
believe that God would put any man in this state but for an 
end of use, we feel authorized to accept the utterances made 
in it as of divine origin and authority. The evidence which 
satisfies us of the supernatural character of the state is that 
arising from the psychological principles involved, upon which 
my " Reasons " arc pretty fall. Your conjectural solution, with 



3G8 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

the parallel cases from the Hospital, to my view, come entirely 
short of an adequate explanation of the facts. As to your 
distinction between "his own speculations," delivered at inter- 
vals, and his dreams, I find no ground for it, as his alleged 
converse with the spiritual world was uninterrupted for twenty- 
seven years, and it was during this period that all his theolog- 
ical revelations were given to the world. If these were all 
the product of insanity or delusion, how is it that men of sense 
and of sound minds find themselves able to receive them as 
involving the profoundest philosophical and scriptural truth ? 
Take, for instance, his view of the Divinity as explained in my 
" Reasons ; " do you really think this savors of insanity 1 ? Yet 
it is impossible to refer this to one of his lucid intervals, be- 
cause it pervades the whole system from beginning to end. So 
of a multitude of other topics. I wish you would read the 
" Divine Love and Wisdom," and the " Brief Exposition," and 
see whether the charge of insanity can stand for a moment. 

5. The doctrine that God is man is merely another form 
of saying that the attributes of humanity exist in God in an 
infinite degree. Is not this true ? In saying that we are not 
to worship an invisible God, he means nothing more than that 
he is not to be approached out of Christ, or otherwise than as 
manifested in the Divine Humanity. Is not this true ? 

6. Your remarks upon miracles prove to me conclusively 
that his doctrine on that head is sound. Men will not believe 
miracles to be miracles. You quote undeniable historical facts 
in regard to Swedenborg, and yet you evidently give no weight 
to them ; nor do I suppose you would, if they had occurred 
under your own observation. How then could he confirm his 
mission by miracles ? No matter how stupendous they might 
have been, next to nobody would have believed them. As in 
the case of the Saviour, it would have been " the power of 
Beelzebub, the prince of the devils." Out of the thousands of 
eye-witnesses of His miracles what a bare handful of the peo- 
ple received them in their true character ! How is this to be 
accounted for except upon the truth of Swedenborg's positions ? 
It is internal evidence, after all, that governs belief on moral 
subjects, and this depends very much on the internal moral 
state of the individual. But see " Reasons." 

I could say much on a variety of other topics touched upon 
in the Lectures, but as I shall probably devote a No. of the 
Library to a review of the work, I will not enlarge at present. 

Thu expre^ion of your regret that I am not oiherwiae and 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 369 

better 1 employed than in the propagation of these doctrines, I 
take to be prompted by the kindest feelings. But as I regard 
it as the supreme blessing of my life that I have been led, in 
the merciful providence of God, to the knowledge and adoption 
of this sublime system of truth, I can do no otherwise than de- 
vote all my energies to imparting to others the treasures of wis- 
dom which have so unspeakably enriched my own soul. In this 
also I have the most cheering tokens of a gracious reward. Mul- 
titudes of minds in all parts of the country are awakened to a 
new and delightful interest in a scheme of religious doctrine 
which ■perfectly harmonizes Reason and Revelation, and thus 
supplies the conscious wants of the soul. My great prayer is, 
that the Lord would give me strength to persevere. In the 
midst of all, however, I do not forget to be grateful for the 
privilege and pleasure of subscribing myself 

Your affectionate friend and brother, 

Geo. Bush. 

August 25, 1846. 

Dr. Woods, — Rev. and dear Sir: I have within a few days 
read over again and again, the more important parts of your 
pamphlet, and have still found myself, as at first, unable to feel 
the force of your objections. They do not, somehow, touch 
the core of the testimony that weighs with me, although I can 
easily perceive how powerfully they will be apt to prevail with 
others. The note from Mr. Clissold, on p. 113 of my " Reasons," 
will explain perhaps better than I could do, how it is that such 
a train of reasoning as you have adopted fails to carry convic- 
tion to my mind. It does not appear to me to meet the real 
demands of the question. That question concerns the truth 
of certain abstract principles touching the inner constitution of 
the human mind and the essential nature of good and evil — of 
heaven and hell. Swedenborg tells me that I am a man from 
my Understanding and Will, or from my Intellect and Affection. 
Now this I know to be true. The true man is the interior or 
spiritual man, the body being merely a temporary adjunct. 
When death severs the union of soul and body, I emerge into 
the universe of spiritual beings like myself. But those beings 
must have a form, for there can be no substance without a form. 
If the substance is spiritual, the form must be spiritual ; and 
the quality of the substance must determine the character of 



370 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

the form. My Love and my Thought are the substance of 
my present being, and they must certainly govern the condi- 
tions of my future being. I must become the form of my love. 
Consequently I am utterly unable to see how by any possibility 
the state of things can be different in the other world from that 
which Swedenborg describes. Will not good spirits be forms of 
angelic loveliness, and evil spirits forms of hideous monstrosity 
— not indeed to themselves, but to the eyes that see by the light 
of heaven ? Do you not even here look upon a wicked man in 
a very different light from that in which he looks upon himself? 
"Will not this be still more strikingly the case in the other 
world ? You sometimes meet with a man in whom you clearly 
detect the dominant qualities of the serpent. Swedenborg tells 
us such a man will appear as a serpent in the world of spirits, 
though not to himself or his like. Why should he not appear 
so? If his ruling love is serpentine, will it not mould h\s form? 
Is not a man's love the essence of his being ? and will not the 
esse of every thing determine the ezistere, or in other words 
tho form ? Again then I ask, how can the forms of heaven 
and hell be any other than Swedenborg has affirmed ? And 
yet, how could he have affirmed if he had not seen ? 

I am aware that you attribute this to the dreaming phanta- 
sies of a great mind. But, my dear sir, here are philosophical 
truths too grand to be the product of dreams ? Why have not 
you or other distinguished divines dreamed out such a profound 
system of psychology as Swedenborg has propounded ? 

But you say there are serious objections to his scheme ; that 
it involves manifest errors ; and you are probably surprised 
that myself and others do not see the force of these objections 
and errors in bar of the reception of the doctrines. And per- 
mit me to say, we are equally surprised that you should let the 
evidence of undeniable truth be vacated and nullified by the 
effect of the alleged errors. We take the ground, that it is 
impossible to be any more certain that the errors are errors, 
than that the truths are truths. And what shall be done in 
this case ? Can we suppose that error and truth will be mixed * 
up — and in equal proportions — in a revelation from God? 
By no means. But of the existence of truth — of superhu- 
man truth — in Swedenborg's system, we are absolutely assured. 
Nothing can shake the conviction. Consequently, if God 
gave him the truth, he could not have given him error at the 
same time. But he did give him truth. What is the infer- 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 371 

ence ? The alleged error is not error. "We call it error because 
it contradicts a former established belief which is itself error. 
Right or wrong, this is our logic, — at least it is that of i 

Your true-hearted friend and brother, 

George Bush. 

New York, April 10, 1848. 

Dr. Woods. — Rev. and dear Sir: — I hope I am not trouble- 
some by my occasional missives, as I think I am influenced by 
a prevailing regard to truth, and have no design to invite an- 
swers to any thing I say. Whether you have seen fit to cast 
your eye over my " Letters to a Trinitarian," in the Repository, 
I know not ; but I confess I feel deep anxiety that you should 
peruse the fourth, in No. 4, which I will send you in a few days. 
I cannot disguise that I esteem the view there presented one 
of the greatest importance, if true ; and that it is true I do not 
see how to doubt. The doctrine of what may be called the 
absolute Jehovahship of Jesus Christ is too fundamental in the 
Christian system to be overlooked, if it rests on a truly Scrip- 
tural basis ; and I do not hesitate to say that I shall establish 
this beyond all dispute in the sequel of the discussion. I ven- 
ture to think, also, that I shall succeed in showing that the com- 
mon doctrine of the Trinity, as a trinity of persons, is a vir- 
tual surrender of the actual divinity of Christ, inasmuch as it 
amounts simply to an adjunction of the Deity to the Human- 
ity, which directly contravenes the Scripture testimony. The 
doctrine of the Bible I believe to be that Jehovah was person- 
ally incarnated in the human nature of Jesus, and not merely 
adjoined to it. The distinction may not perhaps strike you at 
once as being as important as it really is ; but if you will follow 
the series of the Letters, it will open before you in all its stu- 
pendous import. The church can never arise in its glory till it 
awakes to the conviction of the most absolute identity between 
the Jehovah of the Old Testament and the Jesus of the New. 
That this identity cannot possibly consist with the Tripersonal- 
ity avowed in the mass of Christian creeds, it is my object to 
show ; with how much success, I leave it to intelligent men to 
judge. Very respectfully, yours, &c. 

G. Bush. 

[The two following letters of Rev. George Bush to 



372 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

church, are very interesting as showing the state of his 
mind at that time (1829), and as containing some very 
singular remarks on the literal Neiu Jerusalem, which 
he then believed was to be set up and established in 
the earth. The injunction of privacy on account of too 
strong meat for the public, we presume will be pardoned 
at this late day.] 

[To Robert Goudy.'] 
Morristown, N. J., Aug. 21, 1829. 

My dear Friend, — I have often thought of you since we 
parted, and have often thought of writing, too ; but the result 
hitherto has been that I have not written, and I think I will 
not take up time or paper in making apologies. From letters 
addressed to others you have doubtless heard of me and kept 
track of me ever since I left Indianapolis. An opportunity 
now occurs to have a little written chat with you, which I cheer- 
fully embrace. 

I hope it is not merely out of [word torn off] but from 

motives of a proper kind, that I begin what I have to say 
of myself with the acknowledgment of the good providence 
of God toward me. My way through a long journey has 
been greatly prospered ; my health has been pretty uniformly 
good ; and I was permitted to clasp my dear child to my heart, 
as a fine, sprightly little fellow, who had no indications of 
feebleness except a little more than usual delicacy in his com- 
plexion. I know not that he has had a sick day since I ar- 
rived. I am yet remaining with my father-in-law's family, 
who constrain me by their kindness to feel as much at home 
as I possibly could do any where out of my own house. The 
doctor is one of the most amiable, generous, liberal-hearted men 
I have ever met with, and his family is delightful. 

I have not so far forgot my old habits as to be altogether idle. 
I am still plying my pen, more or less, and my lips are fre- 
quently opened in public. A course of weekly lectures which 
I have been delivering for some time has been very well re- 
ceived, and will, I presume, do some good, and in the end afford 
me a little money. The subject of these lectures is the proph- 
ecies of Daniel and Revelation ; and if we could spend an 
evening together, as in old times, I flatter myself I could pre- 
sent some new uleas, or at any rate could give more clear and 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 373 

solid reasons for my former views. In the main, I am more 
and more confirmed in the doctrine that the saints are to be 
raised at the beginning of the millennium, and that their mil- 
lennial glory is their heaven, as long as it lasts. As to their 
residence on the earth, I am inclined to think there will be a 
literal city — the New Jerusalem — prepared for the abode 
of the risen righteous, and that this will be near the ancient 
Jerusalem in Palestine, only covering a vastly larger extent ; 
by which you see I construe some of the last chapters of Eze- 
kiel literally. But in the compass of a letter there is no room 
to dwell on these things. 

As to my future occupation, it is somewhat uncertain. I 
have been nominated, with the Profs. Alexander and Miller, as 
Professor of Languages in Princeton College, and warmly sup- 
ported. The election is to take place next month. I am not 
sure, however, that I shall continue a candidate. I am too 
much engrossed in sacred studies to be fit for any thing else. 
You will know hereafter. 

Right anxious am I to hear from old friends at the "West. 
How come on things in church and state among you ? How 
does Mr. Moreland * do ? How do the Orthodox elders do ? 
Do they agree with their pastor or with each other ? How fare 
the other churches ? In a word, what is the general state of 
things ? I wish you much to write. My friends appear to 
have forgotten me, as far as writing is concerned. Give my 
best respects to Mrs. G. and to the children. The boys may 
be assured of my continued esteem. How do you prosper per- 
sonally ? 

With the best wishes and prayers, 

I remain your friend and brother, 

Geo. Bush. 

The Christian Spectator is so unsound on the matter of origi- 
nal sin that I do not think I shall write for it. 

[To Robert Goudy.~] 

Princeton, N. J., Dec. 26, 1829. 

My dear Friend : — As you have now, I .suppose, counted 
two or three months since your letter to me was written, you 
may conclude I have not received, or am too busy or too indif- 

* He was a Presbyterian minister who sueceeded Mr. Bush: he was 
from Kentucky — is now dead. 

32 



374 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

ferent to answer it. But not so. I received it in due time, 
was extremely glad to hear from you, and shall never fail to 
notice your correspondence, only it may not always be off-hand 
at once, as I have much to do. But it would prove me to be 
hardly human were I insensible to the friendship shown to me 
by yourself and others, through good report and evil report, 
sunshine and shade, when the iniquity of my heels, and not 
mine only, compassed me about. Though a thousand long 
miles stretch between me and the dear friends I have left, yet 
scarcely a day passes but my mind travels over the distance, 
and sets me down, either by the fireside, or by the wayside, or 
in the sacred desk, or the prayer meeting, along with my 
brethren and sisters, to whom I was once, I trust, as a shepherd 
to the flock. But those tender scenes, I fear, are not to be 
renewed in this world, and yet I cannot say but I have a faint 
shadow of hope that at some future day Providence may favor 
me with one more visit to the West. Certainly I shall come, 
if among the many new improvements and facilities for travel- 
ling, some happy genius shall invent a mode of travelling with- 
out money. In the mean time, be assured, both yourself and 
other of my valued friends, that though I cannot perhaps put 
my affections on a par with Paul's, yet in my measure I 
remember all with devoted love, and do not forget them at the 
Throne of Grace. 

You will see by the date of this that I am yet at Princeton, 
where I have been since October. My great pursuit here is 
the study of the Scriptures, with the many valuable aids which 
are to be enjoyed in this place. To pay my way I am writing 
for different works, and also delivering a course of lectures on 
Prophecy, weekly in the church, for which I expect to be paid 
by a voluntary contribution. These lectures are attended by the 
president, professors, etc., of the college and seminary, with 
tew exceptions, and are listened to with considerable interest. 
Dr. Alexander particularly, the oracle of the Presbyterian 
Church, has assured me he feels a deep interest in the subject, 
and intends to understand it, which hitherto he says he has 
not. We both help each other somewhat on the deep points. 
For myself I have got beyond scrupling to affirm a strong 
belief in the doctrine of the Ante-Millennial Advent, and I 
find nobody yet that gainsays my argument. The sentiment is 
secretly spreading, and beture long you will hear more of it. I 
am on very good terms with my Presbyterian friends in this 
place, visiting their ttuuies and families with great freedom. 



OP PKOF. GEOHGE BUSH. 375 

I am member of a clerical club which meets every fortnight 
at the house of one or other of the professors, for the discus- 
sion of doctrinal, practical, or ecclesiastical subjects, and the 
other evening it was proposed that Dr. Miller and I should enter 
the lists on lay elders. This, however, was at a meeting of a 
little different kind, which also is held regularly. I declined, 
simply from the fact of knowing my ground too well, and from 
being sure that I should have too much truth on my side not lo 
make my friends feel uneasy. And I wish to have as much 
peace as possible with my step-mother as long as I am feeding 
upon her dainties. Yet my principles are well known, as one 
of the professors was at the General Assembly when the com- 
plaint of the Indianapolis Church came up last spring. He 
thought the Assembly rather slighted the matter and made 
more of the informality than they needed to have done. There 
was considerable anxiety to have the matter discussed, and I 
most sincerely wish it had been docketed. Methinks this 
result of the appeal to the Supreme Court is a pretty good 
commentary on the utility of these high and mighty powers. 
The General Assembly is a poor market to go to buy justice. 

But I find I have left myself altogether too little space to 
answer satisfactorily your queries respecting the Millennium. 
In the first place, permit me to say, I deal but little in the 
manner and circumstances ; the hoio and the when, of these 
great events. If I can show the facts I do not hold myself 
responsible for the particulars. The main facts which I gather 
from the Scriptures are : that some time probably in course 
of the present century, the one thousand two hundred and sixty 
years of the beast's reign will expire ; that the judgment 
mentioned Daniel seventh, commenced somewhere about the 
time of the Reformation ; that this judgment has been carried 
on by the pouring out of the vials, of which we are now under 
the sixth ; that the last blow of this judgment against the 
beast will be at the battle of Armageddon, which I take to be 
not a battle against a single army like Israel against Midian, 
but the destruction by the hand of God of a great part of 
Europe, the territory of the ten horns ; that the conflagration 
mentioned by Peter will not be universal, but partial ; that the 
righteous dead who are to live in the Millennium will be raised, 
invisibly, a short time previous to that terrible catastrophe ; 
that they will come in the clouds 'of heaven with Christ; that 
the holy saints alive near the destructions to be will be caught 
up to meet the Lord in the air, being changed like Enoch and 
32* 



376 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

Elijah ; that soon after this overthrow of the beast and the 
false prophet, Christ with his Church triumphant will descend 
to the earth, and hi some way — hotv, I do not know — constitute 
a kingdom on earth, which shall be to the nations of the world 
what Jerusalem and the temple was to the Jews ; and I think it 
probable that the land of Judea will be the site of this heavenly 
city. This is a mere outline of my general view. I could fill 
a quire with the details and proofs. You will see from this 
that my opinion is that there will be generations of men on 
earth during the Millennium, as there is now ; that they will 
have the gospel preached to them as they now have; and that 
the tremendous judgment poured out upon Babylon will have 
a wonderful effect in preparing the heathen to receive the 
gospel, for the destruction of a part of the world by fire will 
be such a miracle as the rest must feel. 

The precise manner in which the saints will be employed in 
the New Jerusalem, or what sort of intercourse they will have 
with the living, is beyond my grasp, and I leave it to be de- 
clared by the event. However, I am gaining light daily, and 
were we together I could satisfy a great many queries, which 
I could not have done a year ago. 

****** 

Farewell ; let us strive hard for the millennium kingdom ; 
the bridegroom is on his way. Love to your family and all 
my friends. Yours, in the hope of life eternal, 

George Bush. 

P. S. — I do not wish to have any thing in this letter made 
public by the press. The world is not yet prepared for this 
strong meat. If life and health are spared, I shall eventually 
make known my thoughts in a digested manner on these all- 
important topics. 



[To Rev. Henry Weller, Laporte, Ind.~\ 

Dear Friend Weller : — I have again and again thought of 
writing to you within the last few months, but tor various rea- 
sons, such as busy men usually plead, the purpose has been 
postponed. But your kind notice of the " Exposition," in (he 
last " Crir-is," has determined me at least to thank you lor the 
friendly interest evinced in the undertaking. 

The exceptional remarks are probably well founded, as I am 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 377 

perfectly conscious that, as far as I am concerned, " the spiritual 
sense of the Gospels remains to be written." It is probably 
true that on some points I have assisted the reader to put him- 
self on the right ground for viewing it, by the fuller display of 
the letter; but I am utterly destitute of that perception. or in- 
tuition which would enable me to supply the desideratum which 
advanced readers like yourself would naturally feel. I can 
only go as I am led. I could never write such expositions as 
you have given upon some of the early portions of Matthew. 
I could never originate spiritual interpretations, and therefore 
must remain a simple, servile copyist of Swedenborg in that 
department. This is owing to the lowness of my spiritual state, 
which seems never to have known the least particle of interior 
opening, except a little in the rational degree, and that in the 
way of chinks and fissures through which some measure of true 
light has flowed in. 

But at the same time I am free to say, that if I had the 
illumination of an angel, I should probably get up the present 
exposition mainly in the way that I have done. I should labor 
on a low plane, for I am satisfied the New Church at large is 
not in a state for any thing else, and that I am doing her the 
best service I can at present by preparing precisely such a su- 
perficial commentary as I am bringing out. (These epithets I 
apply, of course, to my own part of it, and not to Swedenborg's.) 
Any thing higher would be mere labor thrown away. It is my 
function to be a spiritual Gibeonite, to hew wood and draw 
water, and collect the "material" requisite for the higher pur- 
poses of the sanctuary. 

What you say about the Temptation is a specimen of some 
slight discrepancies which I have occasionally observed in our 
seer, but which I still might have kept from the eye of the 
reader. You will see by the enclosed that somebody else has 
noticed the same thing. No. 2 will be out this week, and will, 
I think, be generally better liked than No. 1 ; but you will find 
it quite external. However, every man must follow his view. 
My view is the letter, even when treating of the spirit; and I 
would gladly resign the higher sphere of the work to some one 
that would do it more justice. 

Your review of my Reply to Barrett was on the whole very 
clever and kind. The point to which you advert as not ex- 
actly consistent, I am utterly unable to see in the light in which 
you present it. May I suggest an impression that there is in 
your mind a lingering relic of proclivity to or favoritism towards 
32* 



378 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

the priesthood, which prevents you from seeing that there may 
be a distinction of functions founded upon diversity of gifts, 
without any distinction of grades or castes. Yet what is the 
difficulty of conceiving such a system of Church order ? Here 
are a hundred New Churchmen, all on a par — no ministers, no 
teachers, no superiors, no inferiors. They meet together from 
sabbatli to sabbath, and as there is entire freedom of utterance, 
it soon becomes apparent, from their endowments, that some 
individuals are better qualified to instruct than others. Very 
well; they will be acknowledged in this capacity, and what 
should hinder their exercising their gifts accordingly ? Their 
qualifications do not disqualify others. Let every one contrib- 
ute his quota of truth and good according to his ability. There 
is no need of restraining liberty by inducting any of these indi- 
viduals into a distinct, fixed, and permanent office as teachers. 
This leads to the one-man pre-eminence, and is the inevitable 
germ of hierarchy.* 

* We had resolved, at the commencement, not to have a single word 
to say on this question of the ministry or priesthood, and we should not 
now, were it not a note of agreement, and in company with the Professor. 
We frankly confess, and record it here for the interests of truth, that in 
the course of the consideration of this subject, as presented in so many 
ways in the articles and letters of this volume, we have become almost, 
if not quite, a convert to the opinions of Prof. Bush. It is a matter, how- 
ever, which has long been growing in our mind, and it is possible, that 
with our own personal view of it, we may be able also to utter a word of 
caution. At least, we can say thus much : — that this inauguration of a dis- 
tinct class or grade into the special function of the ministry, by ordination 
or peculiar rites, to the exclusion of all others, or as it is sometimes ex- 
pressed, distinguishing them by a discrete degree from the laity — though we 
would not question the immense good which has resulted from this insti- 
tution in general — does appear to involve an evil of an enormous character. 
We believe there is no justification for it, either in reason or revelation. 
It operates frequently as an incubus upon the real life of societies ; it re- 
strains liberty; it substitutes the peculiarities of one man, and his qualifi- 
cations, for the more varied and adaptive instructions of a large number 
who might profitably teach and lead ; and it inflicts, frequently for many 
years, all the states of this one man, whether good or bad, upon the whole 
congregation. The truth of this is manifest from many specimens of 
clerical weakness and inefficiency which do now and everhave filled our 
pulpits. If this institution of a conventional clergy is permanent and fixed, 
and exclusive to all but those who are thus ordained and appointed, what 
a woful discrepancy is there between the institution and the office ! How 
many are there inducted into the office by these rites, who are neither fit 
to preach nor teach with any vigorous effect, and cannot, in any way, 
say with St. Paul, " I magnify mine office " ! Weaklings of a little ex- 
ternal consecrating power and authority,—" settled," as the word is, and 
truly settled, into the ruts of a monotonous end tiresome church state, — 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 379 

I am perfectly aware of the obvious objections to all this — 
objections that come well enough from some who have priestly 
domination inwrought into their very bones and marrow, and 
who are incapable in my view of forming the very first correct 
conception of the nature of the Lord's true Church ; but I 

lengthening out their exclusive jurisdiction for ten, twenty, forty years in 
one place, — repeating themselves, exhausting themselves, and still contin- 
uing — to a people who are thus made solely'dependent upon this one man 
for all their Sunday, pulpit instruction ! " And who is sufficient for these 
things 1 " — the apostle might well ask, with a very different reference from 
that which inspired the original question. The truth is, as one of our most 
celebrated preachers has recently confessed, there are almost always a 
number of persons in the congregation, better able, many times, to teach 
and instruct large numbers, than the preacher is, and who, with a little 
use and custom, would do it with great efficiency; to say nothing of 
states of piety, honesty, and goodness, frequently superior to those of 
the clergyman. Why should these sit forever silent under the one-man 
administration 1 

Yes, we believe the time is coming, in the far-distant future, when the 
whole order of clergymen will be abolished, so far at least as they are now 
recognized as a distinct grade or caste, and as thus peculiarly and exclu- 
sively separated from the laity, and this in perfect consistency with there 
being " preachers in heaven," instructing in the temples, and preachers 
everywhere and forever. There is a growing conviction of this kind with 
the people. We submit to it now as the best thing that can be in the ex- 
isting state of society, and we would advocate no sudden and disastrous 
changes. But the faith is ominous of a total change. 

The truth is, as Prof. Bush goes on to remark, it is the evil and un- 
church-like states of the people that make this ministry necessary now. The 
multitude, or scarcely any number of them, feel no confidence to take this 
matter in hand themselves. It is something altogether too holy. There 
is an awful dread about it. And so one must be hired, who makes a pro- 
fession of holy things, and (sad to relate, were we not so much accustomed 
to it) is dependent for his entire living upon it. It is thus, while profess 
ing to be disengaged from all secular concerns, that the holiest of all 
things become secularized in his hands. He must pray and speak for the 
people, he alone administer the sacraments, look after their sick and dy- 
ing, become the chief human instrument in saving souls, and be pre-em- 
inently the "man of God" and "legate of the skies." We submit that 
there is something radically and sorrowfully wrong in all this, — nay, that 
it only pertains to an evil and corrupt state of the Church. It is a per- 
mitted institution, but not a designed and permanent one. It was not so 
in the beginning, it will not be so in the end. It will be outgrown just 
in proportion that intelligence and purity prevail. And with this will go 
the whole hierarchy — pope, prelate, bishop, trinal order in the ministry, 
with all the controversies, and all the concatenated train of evils which 
have grown out of them. The axe will then only be laid at the root of 
the tree. Christianity will become emphatically of the people, the Church 
will be theirs, and the whole distinction between the clergy and laity, as 
separate grades or castes in society, be utterly and forever annihilated. 

But all this, we say, will not vacate the office of preachers. Besides 



380 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

should be sorry to hear them urged by you, who both from 
observation and experience have so much better grounds of 
judgment. In fact, there are no objections which can stand a 
moment against the above order, but such as arise from the 
tinchurch-like states of the members ; and this is an argument 
which we have no right to use. If men are not in states to 
live and act together on Church principles, they have nothing 
to do to assume Church relations. The laws of order designed 
for the Lord's house can never govern those who do not belong 
to that house. 

I see clearly that you dissent from all this internally, but it's 
of no consequence. I simply state my convictions ; let them 
go. Not that I think lightly of opposite opinions which rest on 
a basis of real New Church argument ; but I regret to have 
found hitherto so little direct reply to my positions, whether on 
the ground of Swedenborg or the Word. Why does not some- 
body take up my construction of the chapter on "Ecclesiastical 
and Civil Government," and show whether it is right or wrong ? 
If my reasoning there is sound, the whole system of New 
Church hierarchy is overturned by the roots. But Barrett, 
and the Convention, and everybody else is as mum as a mummy 
on this head. 

the ordinary, preachecs shall arise in the coming states of the Church, 
God-made and God-inspired, — who, with their internals open to divine 
and spiritual influences, shall speak, trnmpet-tongued, for the truth of 
heaven and against all evil, and who shall accomplish a thousand-fold 
more than it is possible for any hireling or externally appointed clergyman 
to effect in a lifetime. 

The one great evil, he it observed, which is feared from such a change, 
and which might result from it were it effected too suddenly, is confusion 
and inefficiency. But it must be understood, that we look to a time, for 
the most part far in the future, but which is begun now, when the confu- 
sion arising from too promiscuous and random speech would be pre- 
vented by gradual perfection and increase of gift. What if we arc a 
thousand* years, more or less, in advance of the age ? It is not too soon 
to utter so radical a truth, which we do with the utmost respect lor all 
concerned, and consider it as seed sown, to spring up as it will. Surely 
we are not always to be in these darkened and obscure states ; — the Church 
is some day to arise with new powers and faculties ; — and when that day 
of intelligence and purity arises, will not the Spirit evoke new powers 
of utterance, and the dry formalities of dead and exclusive discoursing 
give way to more universal life, variety, and interest 1 At all events, 
while we countenance and recommend no rash and imprudent changes, a 
radical impression is more and more prevailing, that the time is coming 
when the ichole order of clergymen, as at present constituted and sup- 
ported, will cease to be, with all their usurpations and obstructions, and 
when a better system of instruction and exercise will bless our churches 
forever. — Ed. 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 381 

Your late denunciations (tharp enough) of the Convention 
policy, would seem to indicate that you were completely at 
antipodes with it, and yet I am exceedingly perplexed to find 
precisely where you stand in relation to the fundamental prin- 
ciples involved. You seem to me to hold to a distinct clerical 
order set apart by ordination, while at the same time you insist 
upon the rights of the people. I wish you would point out the 
precise items in which you differ from me — not in the Crisis, 
for I do not crave a public discussion, but privately. But 
enough in this line. * * * * 

Yours in the bonds of brotherhood, 

Oct. 25, 1858. George Bush. 

f_ To Abelard Reynolds, Rochester, N. Y.~] 

New York, Sept. 9, 1851. 

Dear Sir, — I am happy to learn that you feel some degree 
of interest in the propagation of these truly heavenly doctrines, 
which, if I mistake not, were very precious and comforting to 
your deceased mother. Should it be any satisfaction, I can as- 
sure you that the revelations of Swedenborg are commanding 
attention on every side, and that a most astonishing change 
in this respect has come over the public mind within the last 
two or three years. Persons that could then hardly name 
Swedenborg but with contempt, now speak of him with the 
greatest respect, as one of the most illustrious of men. 
****** 

The account given in your letter of the interview through 
Mrs. Draper is very interesting, and I know no good reason 
why it may not be true, though I am aware of the great diffi- 
culty of identifying the spirits that profess to communicate. 
But as in this case the message was not through rapping, but 
clairvoyance, and as you give a good character of the medium, 
I am inclined to place more confidence in it than in most things 
of the kind. I have long thought that we could receive more 
truthful responses from the other world if we could only succeed 
in finding mediums in the right state as to good of life, humility, 
etc. For the most part they are very much in self-intelligence, 
or their reliability marred by some defect or other, so that. but 
little is gained by consulting them. Mrs. Draper appears to be 
of another stamp ; her statements may be the means of con- 
firming your mind in still higher revelations. It is mainly as 



382 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

stepping-stones to the elevated plane of truth on which the man 
of the New Church stands, that I regard such manifestations as 
useful. Very respectfully, 

G. Bush. 



{To Mr. Stevens. .] 

Friend Stevens, — I must drop you a line, at least, as you 
have heard nothing definite since our arrival. 

We have become at length very pleasantly settled in our new 
home, and nothing seems wanting but health on my part to make 
this a sphere of use as well as of happiness; but, alas! the 
prospect darkens in that direction. Dr. Dean, our first physi- 
cian in this place, has pronounced my difficulty to be of the 
heart, and not of the lungs, and I am satisfied he is correct 
This puts a very serious phase on the matter, and amounts to a 
call to set my house in order. Thanks to the good Lord that I 
am so well prepared for whatever result his will may ordain. 
He daily sustains my soul in a peace that is wonderful. Blessed 
be his name ! 

From present appearances it is doubtful whether I shall ever 
deliver another public discourse ; but if the Lord gives me op- 
portunity I will open my lips in private testimony till breath 
itself shall fail. Join with me in praying that such an oppor- 
tunity may be granted. 

We should be delighted to see you and Mrs. Stevens and 
Mary in our little cottage. Come as soon as you can. * * * 
Truly and sincerely yours, 

Geo. Bush. 

May 10, 1859. 

[To 3frs. Eliza Dick.] 

[The following letter is the last one of any consid- 
erable length written by the Professor before he died. 
It is interesting as showing his more tender and afiec- 
tionate states.] 

Dear Mrs. Dick : — Ever since reading your letter to Mary, 
I have been desirous to attempt a letter to you, but my weak- 
ness has been so great, most of the time, that I could not muster 
the resolution even to begin. This is very much the nature of 



OP PROP. GEORGE BUSH. 383 

my complaint. It exhausts and prostrates me so much, that 
all life and spirit and energy seem utterly to forsake me, and I 
can do next to nothing but sit or lie in a dead quiescence, count- 
ing the dreary hours as they pass. This is often a trial to my 
faith. I ask myself whether it is acceptable to the Lord that 
I should give way to such languor — whether I should not 
force myself to rise above it and become more active. But it 
is all in vain. I am obliged to yield to the conviction that my 
physical debility is too great to allow of exertion, except of 
the feeblest kind, and that whatever the will of the Lord may 
be, I must take it for granted that I am laid on the shelf, as far 
as any active effort is concerned. 

So severe oppression of the chest is connected with a strange 
defect of locomotive power in the limbs, which in appearance 
is very much like the limbs of a corpse, so that a few rods' 
walking does me over effectually. I have frequently to lean on 
Mary's shoulder to get about our front yard, and a stranger 
who should see us thus walking, from a little distance, would 
say we were a very loving couple. 

But latterly many of the symptoms are considerably im- 
proved, and though I do not think the seat of the disease is 
reached, yet it is a great blessing to be relieved of some of the 
most distressing accompaniments. 

You would be surprised to know how many kind female 
friends are springing up around me, full of sympathy and 
abounding also in remedies, some of which I have found to be 
of real service. They stand upon no ceremony of introduction, 
but come forward like ministering angels to do for me all they 
can. The good Lord reward them ! 

So much for the physical, in which perhaps I have wearied 
you. Spiritually, I am happy to say, " My bow abides in 
strength," that is, I am firm and stable in my prevailing hopes, 
though of that sweet melting, dissolving frame which was con- 
stantly filling my eyes with tears when we last met. I do not at 
present enjoy quite so lively a sense, but I have experienced a 
good deal of it since I have been here, and whenever that was 
the case, my soul was drawn out very tenderly towards your- 
self, and your dear family, as somehow the first objects of that 
divine sympathy which awoke in my heart, and made it almost 
break Avith unutterable longings and groanings. Oh, how near 
we were brought in spirit! It seemed as if we were all in 
heaven together, mingling our souls in angelic union ! 

So when I read your account of our dear John's departure, 



384 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

and arrayed the scene before me, I was in the midst of it, shar- 
ing in jour griefs and tears. 

Precious spirit! how pure and harmless did it make its exit 
from earth to heaven ! How ripe at his early age for the eter- 
nal harvest! So quiet — so gentle — so unpretending in his 
deportment ; and yet so intent upon uses however humble, so 
self-sacrificing, so ardently breathing after opportunities to ad- 
vance the Lord's kingdom in the good of his fellow-men ! 
Sainted soul ! we hope to meet thee and rejoice in thy joy ! 

What delightful news respecting Sara and her husband! 
how do I congratulate her and you that she has received grace 
to continue faithful, and that she is made such a striking in- 
stance of the truth of the Lord's declaration, that " when a 
man's ways please the Lord, even his enemies shall be at peace 
with him." 

She has conquered by the quiet and silent, but victorious 
power of love, and how beautiful the crown that is fitting to 
her head ! Tears will unbidden flow from my eyes, when I think 
over the whole history of her patient and judicious labors, and 
of the precious fruits by which they are beginning to be followed. 
Give her my warmest sympathy and affection: So likewise to 
Susan and all the family. 

I have written perhaps as much as is well for me at one time, 
though I have left a world of things unsaid. 

Mary joins with me in the assurance of undiminished love 
and esteem. Yours ever, 

July 10, 1859. George Bush. 



HUMILITY. 

LINES SUGGESTED BY A PERSIAN FABLE. 



[The following poem is said to be the only one the Professor 
ever wrote. We have had this assurance from his widow. It 
is almost incredible to think so — so much of beauty and ideal- 
ity in his style : one would think that his ideas would start 
betimes — in his youth at least — to embody themselves in 
words of fitting eloquence and flowing measure. "VVe had sup- 
posed that every such man wrote poetry at least more than 
once in his life. But whatever the cause may have been, the 
critical eye will detect at least, in the following, not a very 
great culture of the poetic faculty, and it is well known that a 
wealth of imagination was not distinctively the possession of 
our friend. The piece, however, is beautiful for its moral, and 
of decided merit. It was written at about the time of his sec- 
ond engagement for marriage.] 

# # * High o'er the air it lmng, 

A murky canopy, impending drear, 

Till denser grown by gathering mists upraised, 

And irretentive of its watery load, 

The cloud, from out its treasury of rain, 

A shining drop lets fall. Downward amain, 

Its height empyreal forsaking swift, 

The tiny globe descends. No drooping flower, 

Sweet suppliant of the clouds, receives 

Upon its leaves or petals parched, the drop ; 

But lo ! self-rendered to its primal source, 

The ocean's boundless bosom drinks it in. 

And now commingling with the mighty waves, 

And lost amid the grandeur of the scene, 

The drop, not senseless, lay entranced in awe. 

Diminutive at best, it now itself 

Confessed of no dimensions or account, 

Amidst the wastes unfathomed of the deep. 

33 



386 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 



"How vast," — to give its voiceless musings speech- 

" How vast and limitless the sea ! How dread 

The elemental roar ! What depths profound. 

That mock the sounding plummet's scanty throw, 

And yawn capacious of a continent ! 

What then am I, great parent ocean, I, 

Amidst the wide extension of thy dark domain ? 

An atom only when aloft in air 

Distinct and pendulous I hung, and now 

Upon thine awful mass of waters cast, 

Minuter still, I'm dwindled to a mote. 

Stupendous Ocean, on thy bosom broad, 

Ten thousand thousand kindred atoms fall 

Untold when added, and unmissed when gone ! 

How sink I then to insignificance ! 

How less than nothing, when compared with thine, 

My puny bulk, thou venerable main ! 

Fitly I feel — amidst the waste immense 

Of waters circumfused — myself I feel 

A viewless point amidst infinity. 

In the wider range of being, then, 

And in the vastness of thy handiwork, 

Creation's Architect ! Almighty Lord ! 

Who pour'dst the ocean from thy hollow hand, 

And set yon azure vault the billow's bound, 

Oh, I am nothing ! All abashed, I shrink 

Deep into conscious nothingness ! My thoughts 

Within the compass of my atom size 

Retire, and find a sphere commensurate 

And fit for one, just on the verge of things, 

Whom scarce annihilation could make less." 

Soliloquizing thus in humble strain, 
The drop, meek offspring of the mighty deep, 
Sunk gently downward — as the place "is low 
Humility still seeks — when all at once, 
Conducted near by impulse not its own, 
A shelly tenant of the ocean's realms, 
Well deemed a strange artificer of gems, 
Its craving jaws extending wide, absorbs 
The musing particle. And now fast locked, 
As in a casket rude but rich, the drop 
Much loved of meekness-recompensing Heaven, 
And precious as the tear of penitence, 
Imbedded lies, reserved for other rest. 
Long time imprisoned thus 'tis held secure 
Within its living tenement, now borne 
A richer freight than sails the upper wave, 
Among the coral caverns, Ocean's halls, 
And now descending, undefiled itself, 
Into the ooze and slimy bottom of the sea ; 
Till quickening Nature's magic powers at length, 
And chemic virtues, unattaincd by man, 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 387 

Begin to change the aqueous particles, 
And by the secret process slow transformed, 
The little cloud-drop ripens to a pearl ! 
Nor is it long ere man, rapacious man, 
Whom thirst of gold doth make amphibious, 
And tempt to rifle ocean, earth, and heaven, 
Into the sea's abysses finds his way 
And spoils its briny chambers of the gem ! 
An eastern diver, plunging deep, lays hold 
Tenacious of the pearl's receptacle, 
And brings the hidden treasure to the day. 
No longer now a minion of the main, 
But disenthralled and ushered to the light, 
Through traffic's mazy course it takes ils way. 
Long, long the sport of fortune made, yet still 
The care and favorite of the skies, it roams, 
Till lodged at last in Persia's royal court, 
Its wanderings end. 

See meekness honored ! On the kingly crown 
Of Persia's monarch, glittering like a star, 
Shines the resplendent Drop, the beauteous Pearl ! 



EXTRACTS FROM AN ORATION 

ON THE LITERARY CHARACTER OP THE AMERICAN CLERGY. 

Delivered before the " Theological Society " of Dartmouth College, 
on the Monday preceding the commencement of 1818. 



[We have thought proper to insert the following extracts 
from this oration, delivered forty-two years ago, and when the 
Professor was but twenty-two years old, both for their charac- 
teristic elegance of style, and their great truthfulness. They 
show, in a very interesting manner, the workings of his young 
mind at that time, his great estimate of human learning, and 
the beautiful connection between the intellect and the heart, 
which in after years, and by the light of the New Church truth, 
beamed upon him so resplendently. 

He is speaking of the many aids and helps, of a human and 
providential character, which are made subservient to the prop- 
agation of the Gospel.] 

Among these is human learning. This is obviously 
the chief of all human means by which religion is to 
be propagated. And although all the concentrated 
beams of learning and genius, which have shone in 
every land and every age, would no more avail to illu- 
mine the mind with the brightness of divine truth, than 
the lustre of a glowworm would light up the hemi- 
sphere of heaven ; although the faith of the faithful 
will forever stand, not in the wisdom of men, but in 
the power of God, yet to a certain extent religion and 
learning will flourish and decay together. And the 
general assertion may be safely risked, that a liberal 
and enlightened clergy will always be the surest sup- 



MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 389 

port of the truth, and the most effectual security for 
the success of the Christian revelation. It is presumed, 
therefore, that the indulgence of the audience will not 
be unwillingly given to a few remarks on the Literary 
Character of the American Clergy. 

The brief inquiry which we propose to make into 
this subject cannot be improperly prefaced with a slight 
view of the connection between the moral and intellec- 
tual powers of our nature. Of this connection, and 
of the proportionate cultivation of these orders of our 
faculties on the ground of it, much has indeed been 
said. But it is not at all our purpose to reiterate or 
canvass the opinions to which the topic has given rise. 
We shall merely state some of the advantages which 
the influence of true piety is calculated to afford to the 
exercise of the intellectual faculties. 

That soul which has been visited from on high, and 
become the temple of the transforming spirit of grace, 
has received an inmate which will never depart. And 
the divine agency of this spirit will forever be mani- 
fested in displaying new truths and unfolding the most 
glorious wonders to the soul ; and the faculties will be 
unceasingly heightened and perfected, that their exer- 
tion may be commensurate with the objects presented 
to them. From the first moment that one of our race 
is made a child of God, and brought to rejoice in "the 
true light," Vetera transierunt is inscribed upon his char- 
acter, and to his unclouded vision Vetera transierunt 
becomes the motto of the universe. He is born again 
— he is translated into a new world ; and the whole 
creation seems to share in the stupendous change. 

He looks abroad upon the goodly scenery by which 
he is surrounded, and finds everywhere a new aspect, 
for now his heart is the percipient. The bright beams 
of the sun seem to shine into his soul. The groves 
echo with a music to which he never listened before. 
The streams flow with a more beauteous course, and 
their murmur is not sad. The thunder utters a voice 
which he understands, and the commotion of the ele- 
33* 



390 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

ments awakens neither the ideas of tumult nor of ter- 
ror. 

In himself he is sensible of a wondrous transforma- 
tion. He knows that a mighty hand has rent the veil 
from his mind, and now he is free — free not only of 
the heavy load which presses down the awakened spirit, 
but of those chains which fettered the manly and digni- 
fied exercise of his reason, and cramped the generous 
workings of the feelings of his heart. What was once 
dark is now manifest; what was once doubtful is now 
certain ; what was once odious is now delightful. 

It is easy to conceive that a new character should be 
given to the intellectual operations of such a person, 
and it would no doubt at first be thought that the 
change made a part of rather than followed the grand 
renovation which alters the whole man. To a certain 
extent this will not be questioned. We believe, how- 
ever, that it may be safely affirmed that the difference 
of the intellectual character to which we allude is on 
the whole rather a consequence than a concomitant of 
the conversion of the soul to God. That, if the lan- 
guage may be allowed, it is a natural effect of a super- 
natural cause. And as such we shall consider it more 
particularly. 

The Christian finds himself called upon to reflect 
upon his feelings. And by the frequent practice of 
self-examination his powers of reflection are invigor- 
ated and heightened. He is taught that all the events 
which transpire in the world are wielded by a wise 
Omnipotence; that under His administration all things 
are working together for good to the true believer ; 
that he, as such, can be placed in no situation, wit- 
ness no occurrence, nor share in the production of any 
event, from which he is not to reap instruction. And 
that the gracious ends of Providence in respect to him 
in particular, may not be frustrated by his apathy and 
thoughtlessness, he sees the necessity of being ever 
awake to what passes around him. He is called to the 
exercise of deep, continued reflection. He weighs ihe 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 391 

motives and ponders upon the consequences of his 
actions. He watches the risings of passion, restrains 
the extravagance of fancy, and tries the tendency of 
all his sentiments and affections. 

From such a strict and unremitting discipline the 
most salutary effects cannot but result. This ever- 
active, intense attention — this wary spirit of obser- 
vation — this frequent concentration of the powers of 
thought, cannot fail to impart a peculiar energy to the 
faculties of the mind. 

And here I will appeal to the observation of such of 
my hearers as are careful to note the actings of genuine 
piety, wherever it is found. Have you never seen a 
humble, unlettered believer, who had been trained in 
no school but that of Christ — who was skilled in 
no philosophy but the philosophy of the heart — who 
was deeply versed in no mysteries but the mysteries 
of godliness — have you never seen such a one discover 
a power of conception, an extent of thought, a sagac- 
ity of remark, which was truly astonishing ? On wit- 
nessing such an exhibition you have no doubt been 
constrained to exclaim, in the language of a holy 
heart : " The commandment of the Lord is pure, en- 
lightening the eyes ; the testimony of the Lord is 
sure, making wise the simple." We trust, however, 
that the preceding remarks will make it evident that 
such effects may be the result of the habits of mind 
that attend the exercise of piety distinct from the direct 
agency of a divine power in new-creating the intellec- 
tual character. And if such an exhibition be witnessed 
in those who are but indifferently gifted with mental 
endowments, how much more striking will it be if 
seen in persons naturally distinguished by intellectual 
powers of an exalted order ? But it may be said, If 
these remarks are indeed correct — if a renewed heart 
is commonly attended by an improved understanding, 
how comes it that believers are not oftener scholars? 
Especially, how happens it that the clergy, most of 
Avhom enjoy the benefit of an academical education in 



392 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

youth, and sufficient leisure in after life for the prosecu- 
tion of classical as well as theological studies, are so 
little distinguished as men of letters ? These are im- 
portant inquiries, particularly with respect to the clergy 
of our own country; and in attempting to reply to them, 
we shall only mention a few of the causes which have 
conspired to retard the literary reputation of the Ameri- 
can clergy. 

***** 

The deficiency of a needful degree of enthusiasm of 
which we have spoken as having hitherto characterized 
the American universities, is undoubtedly to be consid- 
ered as one of the principal reasons why so little atten- 
tion has been given to the cultivation of letters by the 
clerical body. Other causes might be enumerated. 
And with respect to the sacred order of the present day, 
at least the mass of them, one, somewhat allied to this, 
may be mentioned, as having greatly contributed to 
keep down the reputation of the clergy as scholars and 
authors. 

We have observed that the course of study hitherto 
pursued in our universities, and the intellectual disci- 
pline it tended to establish, was well calculated to pro- 
duce habits of deep, vigorous thinking, of sound argu- 
mentation and metaphysical research, but was less hap- 
pily adapted to inspire a very ardent partiality for the 
more elegant acquirements of the belles-lettres or the 
fine arts. And we find that, while many of those who 
passed through a course of liberal instruction in our 
institutions not long after their first establishment, and 
entered the clerical profession, became some of the most 
distinguished divines who have adorned the Church in 
any age of the world, they were sadly deficient in the 
arts of polished composition. Yet their works were left 
behind them, and are read. Their unrivalled worlh re- 
deems them from oblivion. No clergyman would think 
his library complete without the theological writings of 
such men as Edwards, Hopkins, Bellamy, and others 
of equal note who lived at nearly the same period. 



OP PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 393 

And the consequence has been that while succeeding 
divines have admired and studied them as masters, 
they have imitated them as models. Hence it is that, 
with the exception, perhaps, of Davies and Wither- 
spoon, we have had, till very recently, so few specimens 
of any thing more than tolerable writing in the immense 
mass of sermons, occasional discourses, and theological 
tracts which have issued from the American press. 
Had the clerical profession of our country cultivated a 
more assiduous converse with the classics of the Eng- 
lish Church ; had they given their mornings to Edwards 
and their evenings to Jeremy Taylor ; had they occa- 
sionally looked into the eloquent pages of the French 
divines, and endeavored to attempt somewhat of their 
holy vehemence with the true venerable dignity, the 
soundness and depth of the theological writers of Brit- 
ain and America, their labors would have been more 
eminently successful, and not only their own but the 
name of our country more highly respected. 

Again, the literary reputation of the American clergy, 
if it has not been actually depressed, has been prevented 
from rising, by their frequent engagement in religious 
controversy. Whether it be owing to the allowed prev- 
alence of every variety of religious sect, or to some 
other cause peculiar to the state of Christianity in our 
own country, certain it is that there has scarcely been 
a period in the annals of the American Church when 
there has not prevailed to an unhappy degree a spirit 
of high-toned religious contention. Disputandi scabies 
ecclesicd^as a sentiment engraved upon the tombstone 
of its author, and worthy of being held in perpetual 
remembrance. And the rage of disputation is no less 
baneful to the interests of learning than to those of 
piety. In religious debates, when the establishment of 
truth is sacrificed to the acquisition of victory, — and 
this is not unfrequently the case, «»*= taste is too often 
sacrificed with it. But even when our notions may be 
honest, and our cause just, and our mode of vindicating 
it judicious and effectual, still the state pf mind with 



394 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

which a divine pits down to the composition of a tract 
of polemic theology is as unfavorable to good writing 
as to right feeling. Moreover, the time that is engrossed 
in these controversies, and their entire absorption of all 
the energies of the understanding and all the enthu- 
siasm of the feelings, leave the combatant but poorly 
qualified to engage in pursuits by which the taste may 
be improved and the discipline of the intellectual fac- 
ulties fully perfected. 

We hope it will not be thought, from the tenor of the 
preceding remarks, that too much importance is attrib- 
uted to mental acquisitions. " The end of all knowledge 
is to enable us better to understand the will of God and 
more perfectly to obey it. Unsanctified by these prin- 
ciples, neither toil nor learning can be of any lasting 
benefit to their possessors. If the study of letters or 
of science be recommended, it is not recommended for 
its own sake. Every thing is trifling which has not 
some respect to our everlasting destiny ; and it matters 
really very little, if the amusement of the present time 
is our only object, whether that be sought at a puppet- 
show or in the schools of philosophy." The messen- 
ger of eternal truth to man may indeed and should be 
skilled in the use of all the weapons which are wielded 
against the hallowed cause that he is called to defend. 
If wit and learning and genius have been set in array 
against the religion of the gospel, let wit and learning 
and genius be summoned to repel their assaults. But 
primus in Ileitis. There is danger that we may contract 
a fondness for so powerful an auxiliary that may rival 
our interest in the cause which it is called to aid. There 
is danger that under the plausible guise of a needful 
accomplishment, or at least of a harmless and liberal 
relaxation, this devotion to literary pursuits may draw 
away the heart from God, and enfeeble our exertions 
in his service. There is danger that it may eat like a 
canker into the very vitals of piety, and quell the holy 
ardors of the renovated soul. Dagon and the ark may 
as well stand together, as a principle of true love to 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 395 

God may exist and thrive in the soul intensely given 
to the pursuits of human learning. Indeed, an exces- 
sive devotedness to these pursuits has been urged by a 
keen and formidable enemy as a reproach to the sacred 
ministry. " O ye ministers," says Rousseau, " of that 
gospel which the Bible contains ! give yourselves less 
trouble to instruct me in so many useless things. Throw 
aside all those learned volumes, which can neither con- 
vince nor affect me. Prostrate yourselves at the feet 
of that God of mercy whom you undertake to make 
me know and love ; ask of him that profound humility 
for yourselves which you ought to preach to me. Dis- 
play not to me that variety of science, that indecent 
pomp of learning which dishonors you and disgusts 
me. Be you affected, if you would have me so ; and 
above all, give me proof in your conduct of your prac- 
tising that law in which you pretend to instruct me. 
Do this, and your ministry is accomplished; and that 
even without the mention of the belles-lettres or of phi- 
losophy. It is thus you ought to practise and preach 
the gospel ; and it was thus its first defenders caused 
it to triumph over all nations." In the words of the 
eloquent Taylor : " Theology is not so much a divine 
knowledge as a divine life." "If ye keep my com- 
mandments ye shall know the truth," said he in whom 
are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. 
He whose life shows forth the power of godliness, who 
draws his stores upon which he lives and which he 
communicates from the inexhausted fount of revelation, 
will need little to take lessons of human masters. The 
true evangelist, if possessed of a classical zeal, will give 
it a spiritual direction. He will ever consider himself 
as a man pledged like another Hannibal, though at 
a higher altar and by a more noble destination, to 
fight the battles of his God ; and into this holy warfare 
every human attainment will be enlisted. He will value 
them so far, and so far only, as they prove important 
subsidiaries in his declared hostility against vice, error, 
and irreligion. And he at the last will be found the 
one for whom there is laid up righteousness in a king- 
dom which is eternal. 



ORATION. 



SOME OF THE EFFECTS PRODUCED ON THE MIND BY 
HABITS OF DESULTOBY BEADING. 



[We insert the whole of the Oration on Reading, for the 
manifest excellence and sound practical judgment which it 
evinces at so early an age ; followed by the Valedictory Ad- 
dresses to the Officers of Dartmouth College, Professors and 
Tutors, and Brothers in learning. How beautiful and affect- 
ing is the tribute, in these brief and admirable addresses, and 
how like a voice from the spirit-land do their touching words 
seem to reach us now, bidding us, in the language of affection, 
to encourage a " true Christian hope that we shall be found side 
by side around the everlasting throne"!} 

It is one of the most signal infelicities of our earthly 
condition, that the sources of many of our highest bless- 
ings may be converted by abuse to the occasions of 
pain, calamity, and death. No sublunary spring to 
which man resorts is prolific only of unmingled good. 
Day and night issuing, according to the fiction of an 
ancient poet, from the same abode, fitly represent to us 
the emanations of good and ill, of pleasure and pain, 
from the same fountain. The position holds equally 
with respect to the material and the intellectual world. 
According to the degree and manner of its use, the 
most healing balm in nature may become the rankest 
bane, and foul and poison the streams of life. An ex- 
ertion of any of the mental powers unseasonably put 
forth, or unduly continued, may cccasicn irreparable 
harm to the individual faculty itself, and introduce 



MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 397 

weakness and derangement into the whole intellectual 
economy. Whereas an effect directly the reverse would 
have followed, had the act been well timed, and the de- 
gree of it discreetly governed. 

Reading is the grand means of elevating and enno- 
bling our rational nature. It is the key which unlocks 
the treasures of creation and lays open the mysteries 
of the soul. It is the passport that makes us free to 
roam through the universe and gather wisdom from 
every region. By lengthening out our own brief span 
before us and behind us, it multiplies existence, and we 
live in the persons of our ancestors and in the scenes 
of futurity. Like the air to the organ of hearing, it is 
the great medium of intellectual sensation. And as this 
element may become, by the result of certain unchecked 
tendencies in the matter with which it is connected, an 
immense reservoir of deadly pestilence, so Reading may 
be rendered the means of impairing all that is vigorous, 
of unsettling all that is orderly, and of marring all that 
is beauteous in the mind of man. 

Such are pre-eminently the effects of Reading with- 
out a fixed, determinate purpose to guide us in the se- 
lection of books and in the manner of perusing them ; 
whether this method be termed superficial, miscel- 
laneous, or desultory. It is a dictate of common ex- 
perience no less than of philosophy, that the force of 
every impression on the mind depends for the most 
part on the degree of attention given to the object by 
which it is caused. If the attention be languid, the 
impression is inevitably weak. If it be lively and in- 
tense, the impression is deep and lasting. This faculty 
of attention, although voluntary in its operation, is in- 
ert without excitement. And among the qualities in 
objects which are its most powerful stimulants, philo- 
sophical writers have enumerated Beauty, Novelty, and 
Grandeur. But these qualities do not distinguish the 
objects which meet us most frequently in the ordinary 
walks of life. Some more uniform and constantly 
active principle than either of these must prompt our 

34 



398 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

attention to those every-day concerns on which our 
well-being mainly depends. This principle is sup- 
plied by interest, which connects our happiness and 
our hopes with what is taking place around us. Were 
it not for the power of interest in fixing our regards 
upon the daily occurrences of life, they would all pass 
by us as the fleeting clouds over our heads. 

Now it is the unavoidable tendency of an imrae- 
thodical habit of Reading to impair the faculty of at- 
tention, by deadening the efficacy of this needful in- 
centive. To whatever reason it may be owing that 
such a habit has been formed, — whether to a wrong 
view of the true end of study, to a morbid curiosity, 
to the pride of display, or to an impatience of the re- 
straint of system; one who is eager to look into the 
rudiments of every science, who deems it a reproach 
not to know something of every subject, and who reads 
one book to learn what is said in it of others, cannot 
be supposed to carry with him the abiding influence 
of this principle. He, of course, comes immeasurably 
short of the attainable benefit of Reading. There is 
no feeling of appropriation. He does not incorporate 
what he gains with what he possesses. He is like a 
man receiving merchandise upon commission, and not 
by purchase. It is not his own — he does not attend 
to it as his own — he does not make it his own. And 
this lack of interest — this want of an identifying, as- 
similating principle will not injure the single faculty 
of attention only, but diffuse imbecility through all the 
powers of the understanding. 

The obvious connection between the attention and 
the memory will make it unnecessary to expatiate on 
the effects produced in this manner on the latter. The 
fact that they are connected will readily suggest such 
a modification of the remarks applicable to the one, as 
will render them equally applicable to the other. 

The manifold evils, however, of this mode of reading 
are to be traced rather in the general aspect of the in- 
tellectual habits ailected by it, than of any one indi- 



OF PROF. GEOHGIO BUSH. 399 

vidual faculty. They are conspicuous in the general 
character of imbecility and abortiveness which they 
give to the efforts of thought. The power of thought 
is the true test of mental excellence. And the benefit 
of every system of intellectual discipline is to be pro- 
nounced upon according to the degree in which it trains 
the faculties to habits of original, independent thinking. 
In like manner, the ill effects of an injudicious plan of 
study will be determined by the extent in which such 
a discipline is counteracted. Tried by this criterion, 
the consequences of a method of mixed, indiscriminate 
reading, will be found of incalculable detriment. An 
inability to summon up our own resources, and a trem- 
bling distrust of their sufficiency when at hand, will be 
its invariable result. 

The peculiar impotency of thought which we have 
mentioned as one of its effects, will discover itself in all 
the first efforts of the miscellaneous reader. Striking 
first thoughts are sometimes spoken of as an inferior 
kind of inspiration — as possessed of a certain oracular 
character which distinguishes the actings of only some 
rare and richly gifted intellects. But in fact, such acute, 
profound, and effectual first thoughts as are ofttimes 
displayed in the various fields of speculation and action, 
are the spontaneous result of a well-ordered conduct of 
the understanding. But they mark not the exertions 
of that mind which is devoid of confidence in its own 
powers ; and that the habits of which we speak di- 
rectly tend to generate such a distrust will be at once 
perceived. 

This is a singular misfortune. In the world, first 
impressions are every thing. And these will obviously 
depend upon the first efforts of those who stand forth 
as candidates for its favors. A first attempt, whether in 
thought or action, is a die cast, and the throw is usually 
decisive. If it be successful, we give a pledge for the 
future, which, venal and uncharitable as the world too 
often shows itself, we cannot easily forfeit. If it be 
unsuccessful it is generally irretrievable. Men are too 



400 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

deeply immersed in their own individual interests to 
spend time in weighing the probable causes of failure. 
In the hurry of business and hope they cannot stop to 
compute allowances which ought perhaps to be made, 
nor to decide how far a miscarriage at first may be 
compatible, or whether it be at all compatible with the 
possession of true merit and of the rarest endowments. 

It is not to be questioned that the habits of mind 
naturally incident to this manner of reading are un- 
favorable, and even absolutely injurious to the exercise 
of original thought. At the same time they may not 
be wholly adverse to the acquisition of a store of mul- 
tifarious knowledge. The soils of different regions 
will adhere to the feet of the traveller as he passes 
through them. And some insulated facts, some bar- 
ren principles, some unconnected opinions will cleave 
to the great reader as he journeys through their un- 
numbered diversities. And in so far as these attain- 
ments may be considered knowledge, they will gain 
respect. Not so much, however, for what they are, as 
for what they imply. For it will be usually found that 
the mass of mankind are prone to look upon the indi- 
cations of extensive general information as pledges for 
the possession of native strength and vigor of intellect. 
This prepossession does not arise perhaps from the fact 
that this is generally the case, but the plain sense of 
mankind tells them that it ought to be. So that the 
main end which every one should propose to himself in 
his studies, the improvement of the thinking powers, 
is in this way defeated, like the design of one who in 
attempting to show the reflection of the sun's rays in 
all their beauty, lets them fall upon a substance which 
they melt away. 

It would be endless to designate in all their variety 
and full extent the evils of such an unsettled mode of 
study. The most deplorable of all is undoubtedly the 
utter prostration of the intellectual energies. In the 
mind ruled by such habits all is impotence and tumult. 
Its faculties combine without harmony and act with- 
out effect. 



OF PROF. GEORGE BUSH. 401 

Who reads 
Incessantly, and to his reading brings not 
A spirit aiid a judgment equal or superior, 
Uncertain and unsettled still remains, 
Deep-versed in hooks and shallow in himself, 
Crude or intoxicate. 

An acute observer of the indications of intellectual 
character would not fail to perceive that the acquisi- 
tions of such a reader were chiefly made to be talked 
of. Like the fabled transformation that followed the 
touch of Midas, every attainment in the arts or sciences 
or letters is converted into history. And should he be 
led by taste or necessity to the frequent practice of 
original composition, his style will betray all the perni- 
cious influences of irregular study on mind. So super- 
ficial is the impression which his reading leaves, that 
he will not imbibe the characteristic spirit of any one 
author, nor group together the distinguishing excellen- 
cies of many, and form a distinct manner from the 
whole, but like the skin of the chameleon which re- 
ceives its hues from the nearest objects, his style will be 
affected by that of the work which he last consulted, 
and the separate peculiarities of a whole catalogue of 
authors may perhaps appear in the same production. 

In the moral tendency of the mode of reading to 
which we allude, we shall see another of its effects 
equally inevitable and equally to be lamented. A lan- 
guid exercise of the mind paralyzes the emotion of the 
heart. It is seldom the case that he who does not think 
intensely, will feel intensely. The fine movements of 
the soul are obstructed and its best affections die away. 
What begun in dulling the faculties of the under- 
standing ends in impairing the power and silencing 
the voice of conscience. 

VALEDICTORY ADDRESSES. 

Respected Sir : Human nature never appears so en- 
gaging as when her dignity is asserted by individual 
exertion. And in the constitution of society and in 
34* 



402 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES 

the economy of ihe principles which support it, it is 
provided that the fairest monuments of national glory 
may be achieved by a single mind. Thousands con- 
spired to rear the pyramids of Egypt — the Iliad was 
the work of an individual. Yet who would not choose 
that his own or his country's name should be found in 
the pages of the poet, rather than graved on the perish- 
able fabrics that overlook the Nile. In our own coun- 
try scarce any situation concentrates to itself so large 
a measure of personal influence as the presidency of 
our literary institutions. And to us who are about to 
retire from the seat of our venerated seminary, it is 
given to bear with us the conviction that this situation 
is auspiciously occupied and this influence happily 
dispensed. 

Respected Professors and Tutors : It is seldom the 
case that any one looks back from mature age to the 
days of his youth, and sees nothing to greet his eye but 
a bleak, forbidding scene. Some grateful spot will he 
find, to gladden his heart. Some streaks of celestial 
blue will appear through the crevices of the clouds. 
As for us who are now about to retire from the offi- 
cial, or rather the parental care of the guides of our 
early life, we leave with you the sincere assurance that 
when hereafter we think of the morning of our days, — 
of its pursuits, its acquisitions, and its pleasures, we 
shall think with equal or rather the same complacency 
of those who marked the path to them all, and fired 
our spirits on the way. 

Rev. and Hon. Gentlemen of the Board: The patrons 
of learning are the guardians of a nation's true palla- 
dium. Religion, science, and liberty flourish best to- 
gether. They constitute the trifolium of national 
strength. Seasons of trial and prosperity are both use- 
ful to institutions like that whose concerns you are 
called to manage. The one attests its importance in 
the eyes of the public ; the other makes known the zeal 



OP PROF. GEORGE DUSH. 403 

of its guardians for the permanence of its interests. 
Happily for our country, proof remains not to be given 
that such have been the issues of such seasons with 
respect to the revered seminary to which we now must 
bid adieu. 

My Brothers : The present is to us an hour big with 
interest. It witnesses the termination of an important 
period in our lives — important as having given birth 
to connections which we shall long remember, and more 
especially as in the course of it the intellectual and 
moral character of each of us has been stamped with 
the peculiar impress which it will be likely to retain 
through life. And in looking back upon its flight, who 
of our number is not forced to say 

"How gone like yesterday these happy years of time"? 

Our entrance upon the career which now, alas ! a few 
moments will bring to a close, ushered us scarcely less 
into a new mode, than a new sphere of existence. 
Sources of improvement and pleasure were then laid 
open to us to which we were strangers before. And 
we trust they were not laid open in vain. Our vener- 
ated instructors have taught us the power and the gran- 
deur of thought. From our free social visits — from 
our morning meetings — from our evening walks over 
the dear and much-loved scenery around us, we have 
learned the charms of sentiment. And under the teach- 
ing of him who is not only wise, but Wisdom itself, 
have we not, my brothers, known something of the sub- 
lime and the sweet of piety ? But these days are ended, 
and we are fellow-learners no more. In the wide world 
before us we may sometimes chance to meet. But it 
will be like different streams, issuing from the same 
source, which in some parts of their course come near 
together, but never mingle till they mingle in the ocean. 
That unity of interest and feeling which has so long 
linked our hearts in one, this fleeting hour will dissolve. 



404 MEMOIRS AND REMINISCENCES. 

But we would fain believe we might assure each other, 
not in that language merely which is so convenient to 
close a parting address, but in language of true Chris- 
tian hope, that we shall be found side by side around 
the everlasting throne, when yon bright sun has become 
dark, and the shining of the stars is quenched, and the 
rolling orbs of heaven shall roll no more. 



GONE TO HIS REST. 



Gone to his rest ! The good man's rest ! 
Gone where true faith is crowned and blessed ; 
Gone where the heart to joy is wed, 
And hope on full fruition fed. 

Gone to his rest ! His work is done ! 
The battle fought, and nobly won ! 
Gone where his soul desired to be — 
From prejudice and error free. 

Gone to his rest ! He feels no more 
The cold neglect he meekly bore ; 
Gone to a fellowship above, 
Where honest doubts are solved by love. 

Gone to his rest ! His trials o'er, 
Detraction's sting is felt no more ; 
Gone where the slander of the tongue 
On echoing bells no more is rung. 

Gone to his rest ! Our teacher gone ! 
The friend we loved, but dare not mourn ! 
Gone where his sacrifice of fame 
To love of truth a crown will claim. 

Gone to his rest, the good man's rest! 
Gone to the land of spirits blest ! 
Gone from our sight, but not from heart ; 
Gone, but we trust 'tis not to part. 

Brooklyn, November, 1859. A. W. 



INDEX 



Anastasis, 9, 182. 

Administering the sacrament, 72. 

Altars, 100. 

Authority, divine, for the priesthood, 100. 
of Peter, Paul, and Swedeub'g, 110. 
ecclesiastical, 229. 

Anti-clerical theory, 111. 

Apostles, signification of. 117. 

Adoption of the doctrines of Swedenborg, 
123. 

Atonement, 129, 141. 

Angels once human spirits, 158. 

Ad invidiam charges. 107. 

Bellows'. Rev. Dr., Letter, 232. 

Biographical Sketch, 1. 

Bush, John, 1. 

Bush, Geo. Birth, 1. Two prayers, 2. 
Love of books, 3. Desire for an educa- 
tion. 3. Taught school, 4. Classmates, 4. 
Ordination, 10 His preaching. 11. Cor- 
respoudence, 12. Example of. 25. Faults, 
27. At Elmwood Cottage, 33. Death, 
35. Journal, 39. Thoughts, and style 
of writing, 41. Tutor in N. J. College, 
45. Housekeeping, 53. Visit to Plym- 
outh. 53. Reply to Perambulator," 89. 
His sincerity. 183. A nol.le type of the 
Christian gentleman. 183. Manliness 
and fidelity, 184. Knowledge of the lan- 
guages, 186. Great mental characteris- 
tic, rationality, 190. Great entertainer 
of new ideas." 231 Loving truth, 212. 
Claimed and conceded the right to think 
freely. 213. Letters to N. F. Cabell, 221, 
Thin scholarly form. 233. His caudor, 
239. Qualifications as an interpreter, 240. 
Humor, 245. Peace in sickness. 249. Set- 
tlement at Indianapolis, 256. Sketch of, 
262. Simplicity of character. 2S2. Troub- 
les. 286. Earlv ministry, 304. Letter, 
344. Letters, 365-384. 

Books containing internal sense of the 
Word, 169. 

Baptism. 72. 

ry on Psalms. 6. 

Commentaries on the Old Testament, 7. 

Charity. 29. Ruled in the early church, 
104. 

Charity held as a fundamental, 104. 

Church, 61. Each do. a distinct common- 
monwealth, 63. 
visible, 65. 



Church, practice of Apostolic, 88. 

society, in its essential nature, 94. 

a school of life, 94. 

built up, 106. 

of charity 287. 
Churches, decline of, 104. 

primitive state of. innocent, 105. 
Colporteurs, 86. 
Clerical substitution. 86. 

order as a distinct caste, 91-93 

doctrine. 111. 
Correspondence, 221. 282, 256, 299-303. 

extent of his, 297. 
Change of religious belief, 123. 
Claims to a preternatural state, 128. 
Creation is by emanation, 132. 
Causes, spiritual, the world of, 133. 
Creeds, 140. 

Cabell, N. F., paper by. 197. 
Conservatives, ultra, 217. 
j Climatic allocation of the negroes, 231. 
Conscience as a lever. 231. 
Controversialist, an admirable, 239, 247. 
Conjugal ethics, 240. 
Clapp, Otis, communication from, 292. 
Davis, A. J., 14. 17, 227. 239, 284. 

revelations revealed, 18. 
Diary of Swedenborg, 23. 
Dream. 24, 127. 
Distiuct caste. 97, 101. 
Depravity of human nature, 143 
Death a continuation of life. 155. 
Degrees of divine afflatus, 170. 

celestial, spiritual, and natural, 
173-175. 
Divine thought. 173. 
Den of learning, 187. 244. 
Disputant, an agreeable private, 239. 
Dead church, 334. 
Divine humanity, 368. 
Dead, how raised, 155. 
Exposition of the four gospels, 30, 300. 
Ecclesiastical institutions. 107. 
compound, 110. 
authority, 229. 
Emerson, R. VT , reply to, 18. 

lectures in England. 360. 
Extemporaneous talk among brethren, 81. 
Equals, in heaven all are as, 113. 
Ecstatic state of the prophets, 170. 
Exploring power of the doctrines, 176. 
Eternal, sometimes indefinite, 224. 



407 



Eternity of evil, 339. 

Emancipation, 362. 

Faculties, 91, 92. 

Function of ministry, 96, 97- 

Fundamental principles, the Lord, eternal 

life, and the Word, 104. 
From first principles to last, 138. 
Form derived from the spirit, 152. 
Fidelity to truth, 178. 
Freedom of religion, vaunted, 217. 
Fairncs-; in controversy, 295. 
Faithful to his convictions, 298. 
Good communications purify bad manners, 

85. 
Grades, diversity of, 96. 
and castes, 110. 
Gods, idea of three. 140. 
God acts upon spirits according to their 

nature, 146. 
Gardens of memory, 244. 
" Gone to his rest," 405. 
Hebrew Grammar. 7. 
Hierophant, 8, 182. 
Heart is love, 137. 
Heaven is love, 144. 
Holland, Rev. E. G., on the life of Prof. 

Bush, 181. 
Hayden, Rev. W. B., paper by, 185. 
Hierarchy, 230. 
Humor, playful, 245. 
Headship of the Church, 333. 
Humility, a poem, 385. 
Human learning, 388. 
Illustration from the Word, 113. 
Imposition of hands, 71, 75. 
Individual effort and action. 86. 

responsibility, 229. 
Institution theory, 103, 105, 108. 
Infancy, childhood, innocence, 105, 106. 
Incarnation, 140. 
Imputed benefits, 147. 
Internal sense of the Word, 160, 221. 
Implantation of good, 195. 
Journal of Prof. Bush, 39. 
Justification by faith alone, 129, 142. 
Jehovah becomes incarnate, 137. 
Jehovahship of Christ, 371. 
Knowledges, man becomes man by, 106. 
Kingdom in the heart, the Church a, 330. 
Lectures in Princeton in '29, 373. 
Lay preaching, 357. 
Lord's Prayer, 301. 
Life of Mohammed, 6. 
Lecturing, 12. 

in Boston, 292. 
Letters to a Trinitarian, 15, 21, 371. 

of Prof Bush to N. F. Cabell. 221. 
Lewis, Prof., 17, 21. 
Life, its origin, etc., 20. 
Love element. 26. 
Luther on the ministry, 88. 
Licenses to preach, illustrated, 94. 
Lust of dominion, 108. 
Lord's gold and man's dross, 110. 
Lord, the, speaks with every one, 114. 

glorified, 146. 
Life is influx from the Deity. 132. 
Love the underlying ground of existence, 



Letter, a, is a going forth of the spirit, 172. 
Liberty of thought and action, 200 
Cove of truth, 233. 
Letter from an Orthodox clergyman, 237. 

a lady of the Orthodox Church, 
244. 

Indianapolis, 256. 

Mrs. Eliza Dick, 276. 

lion. Lucius Lyon, 294. 
on Prof B.'s career, 295. 
from John Thomas, 307. 

S. Hunt, 313. 

Mrs. Jane Goudv, 314. 

Rev. Dr. L. Woods. 326. 

Joseph N. Vaton, a30. 
Letters from Rufus Choate, 317. 

on the eternity of evil, 339. 
Letter from George B. Arnold, 334. 

Robert Elf, 336. 

James A. Austin, 352. 

A. W. Paine, 353. 

Rev. B. F. Barrett. 355. 

W. H. Wynn, 356. 

Otis Clapp. 357. ' 

Thomas Wavland. 357, 358. 

Adam Haworth, 359. 

A. E. Ford. 300. 

Tho. F. Shewell, 361. 

V. Kierulff, 362. 
Mediation of Jesus Christ, 147. 
Man's body a medium, 146. 
Mental intercourse, 130 
Maroin, Abigail, 1. 
Mesmer and Swedenborg, 15, 282, 291, 293, 

354. 
Memorabilia, 15, 224. 
Marriage, 5, 21. 
Minister, 68, 77. 

Ministry, 75, 76, 85, 214, 228, 265. 
Mutual instruction, 82. 
Missionaries, 86. 
Man a spiritual being, 120. 
Mesmerism, bearing of, 129, 224, 279, 288. 
Memorable Relations, 160, 166. 
Miracles, 163, 368. 
Millennium, treatise on, 6. 
Nebuchadnezzar's dream, 9. 
New Church Miscellanies, 22. 
Repository, 22. 
Life, 30. 
System, 218. 
Numbers, critical notes on, 59. 
Noble's appeal, 125. 
Origin of the Pope, 64. 
Ordination, 73. 
Order of clergy, 96, 214. 
Organization for the Lord's church, 110. 
Operation, or proceeding energy, 136. 
Oracles of a seer, 151. 
Old Testament Word, 171. 
Outward manifestations, 361. 
Oration at college in 1818, 388. 

on reading, 396. 
Order making, 110. 
Persons, trinity of, 135. 
Pond, Dr., 17. 227. 
Power of truth and good, 139. 
Priesthood of grace, vs. do. of the flesh, 65. 



408 



INDEX. 



Priesthood and clergy unknown to Chris- 
tianity, 22, 61. 

Privev. 28. 32. 41 ..43, 49, 259. 
Preaching, «ift of, 114. 
Preaching the Gospel. 73. 
Preachers iis a class, 103. 
Propagandists, every circle a band of, 85. 
Press, executive ministry of, 85- 
Perambulator on the ministry. 89. 
Pulpit as a permanent institution, 91. 

permitted, but not provided, 102. 

as an institution, 111. 
Philosopher, why one was chosen. 163. 
Prophets not. uniformly inspired. 171. 
Practical bearings of the N. C. system. 175. 
Protestantism born from Romish errors, 

218. 
Proselytism not of the New Church, 224. 
Priest and priesthood. 229. 
Priestly principle, a, 84. 
Poetry on the death of Prof. B., 316. 
Poirsin, Dr., cure of, 351. 
Painful consequences of fidelitv to truth, 

178. 
Questions and notes on Genesis, 9. 

Leviticus, 9. 
Rule, hatred loves to bear, 105. 
Roman hierarchy, 109. 
Revelation, immediate, not given, 114. 
Reconciliation, 129. 
Resurrection, 157. 
Reason held captive to faith, 1G3. 
Religious by proxy. 217. 
Royal priesthood, 230. 
Reminiscences bv a lady, 267. 288. 

by Mr. Reynolds, 310. 
Ritchie, Mrs. A. C, Letter from, 279. 
Roman Babel, 333. 
Reign of darkness. 334. 
Reading. 396, 397. 
Rules, making of, for another, 331. 
Rule, clerical, tendency of, 76. 
Reason and revelation wed together, 131. 
Salvation is heaven, 144. 
Scriptural illustrations, 7. 
Scripture questions for Bible classes, 8. 
Statement of reasons. 15, 17, 122. 
Spiritual priesthood, 78. 
Spiritual priests and kings, 97. 

gifts, 113. 
Soul, 153, 155. 
Substance, 128. 



] Science of correspondences, 129. 
] Second Advent, 162. 
Swedeuborg, talent and worth of. 162. 

a chosen instrument, 150. 

dark through excess of light, 
152. 

authority of. 335. 

speculative view of, 159. 
Soul elaborates the body. 168. 
Sex in the other world. 168. 
Sacred canon, rejecting the. 169. 
Stuart. Prof., on Jewish writers, 170. 
Speech of the Most High, 174. 
Smith, Gerrit, 230. 

Sketch of Prof. Bush in 1831, 262-266. 
Society of the N. J. in Brooklyn, 296. 
Squareness, character for. 297. 
Science married to religion, 335. 
Slavery, manner of opposing it, 231. 
Sneering irrefutable, 164. 
Temples and altars abolished, 100. 
Trial and nard experience of the church, 

108. 
Teaching ministers, 118. 
Thought a resultant of love. 137. 
Thoughts are substances, 126. 
Temple of truth, door of, 133. 
Trinity. 136. 139. 

Transition from this world to the next, 177. 
Truthful to exactness, 180. 
Temper, never lost his, 240. 
Tutor in Princeton College. 296. 
Truth its own authority, 334. 

what is it ? 179. 
Tulk, C. A., views of, 336. 
Use. specific. 91, 96. 
Unity of philosophy and faith, 132. 
Valley of Vision, 9. 
Visible clergy. 78. 
Voice of God.' truth the, 334. 
Woods, Dr., 17. 365-371. 

reply to. 18, 366. 
Worthington. Asa, paper by, 55. 
Worship. 82. 99 

Wisdom acquired bv knowledges, 105- 
Will and intellect, 121. 
Wisdom a form of affection, 136. 
Wrath not in Deity, 141. 
Whiting, Rev. Lynian, tributary record, 

251. 
Wentz, Mrs. Sara A., reminiscences by, 
267. 



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